Gordon Campbell On The Hikoi Arrival, And Tyler Childers
Politicians like to bang on all about the need to heal society’s racial/economic divisions, but in their actions they’re more keen on stoking those divisions, […]
Parliament
Gordon Campbell on the blockade against Chloe Swarbrick’s right to speak freely about Gaza
The tut-tutting about what Green MP Chloe Swarbrick said and how she said it, and whether she could have/should have expressed herself in other ways […]
Gordon Campbell on Seymour acting up, and Labour’s lost cause
To use a musical analogy, ACT Party leader David Seymour is to centre-right parties what Lindsay Buckingham was to Fleetwood Mac – a talented guy, […]
Gordon Campbell on National’s 20th century transport policy, and Labours’ woes
In justifying its multi-squillion dollar, ten years in the making, four lane highway linking Whangarei to Tauranga, the National Party did what it always does […]
Gordon Campbell on the lessons from Spain’s election
Spain held an election last Sunday… And stop me if any of this doesn’t sound familiar. The two right wing parties were expected to win […]
Gordon Campbell on Sir Roger’s lament, and the Commonwealth Games
So Dr. Frankenstein is feeling upset about how his monster has turned out. To the dismay of Sir Roger Douglas, the ACT Party has become […]
Gordon Campbell on how political donations favour the centre-right
Political donations are not gifts. They’re an investment. Lest the recipients forget the gesture, one of the purposes of political lobbying is to remind everyone […]
Gordon Campbell on National’s need for Winston Peters
As a spectacle, politics can be pretty boring. MMP politics isn’t a cage fight, or even (ultimately) a struggle between individual parties. Moreover… Under MMP, […]
Gordon Campbell on TOP, and the bank inquiry
The 5% MMP threshold soaks up a disproportionate share of the attention paid to the struggle by small parties to get into Parliament. By now, […]
Gordon Campbell on red tape and Nicky Hager’s regal reward
Not for the first time, David Seymour looks like an answer to a non-existent problem. Reportedly, ACT is promising to establish a Ministry of Regulations […]
Gordon Campbell on National‘s aversion to transparency
In the last year of a second term in government. the election outcome shouldn’t even be close. All that’s required for a competent Opposition to […]
Gordon Campbell on trying to pass National on the right
It may be naïve to expect any politician to be consistent, but Christopher Luxon really is in a class of his own. One day, he’s […]
Gordon Campbell on the wilting of the Greens
For a party that thinks global, the Greens have developed a habit of acting local, and by local I mean North Island, and by North […]
Gordon Campbell on the Coronation
Finally, the imperial sound of one hand clapping. Saturday night NZ time, Charles III will be officially sworn in as King and as our head […]
Gordon Campbell on rules for lobbyists
As predicted in this column on Monday the Trump indictment has turned out (a) to hinge on New York state law 175.10 on the falsifying […]
Gordon Campbell on firing Stuart Nash, plus a music playlist
Here’s an analogy for the Stuart Nash saga. If people are to be forgiven for their sins, Catholic dogma requires two factors to be present. […]
Gordon Campbell on the Hipkins cutbacks, and the major Saudi/Iran deal
Most days, Chris Hipkins and James Shaw seem a bit like the Seals and Crofts of the centre-left: Earnest, inoffensive, and capable of quite nice […]
Gordon Campbell on disaster politics
Most of us have been the CEOs of our own lives for long enough to realise that Cyclone Gabrielle has done a massive amount of […]
Gordon Campbell on National’s fraught journey back to the centre
Ever since Christopher Luxon became leader, National has adopted a “small target” strategy. This consists of offering nothing to distract the media from its focus […]
Gordon Campbell on entrenchment, and being ‘soft on crime’
Good grief. Is it really a grave misuse of power to entrench safeguards against the irreversible sale of key public assets? Hardly. If this country […]
Gordon Campbell on saying goodbye to Dr Sharma, and the monarchy
Dr. Guarav Sharma is now an independent MP. We probably won’t have to wait much longer before we hear he’d be willing to work with […]
Gordon Campbell on the Sharma chameleon
Gather round the camp-fire, folks. Let me tell you about the Ice Age era of the fourth Labour government, when mean, sabre-toothed tigers like Richard […]
Gordon Campbell on the Greens, and on free market myopia
Climate change has gone from being one of those allegedly wacky Green ideas to wide mainstream acceptance. In their own ways, leaders like Jeanette Fitzsimons, […]
Gordon Campbell on Rabuka’s possible return in Fiji
Fiji signed onto China’s Belt and Road initiative in 2018, along with a separate agreement on economic co-operation and aid. Yet it took the recent […]
Gordon Campbell on the youth crime furore
So far, the excited media response to the spike in “ram-raid” incidents is being countered by evidence that in reality, youth crime is steeply in […]
Gordon Campbell on abortion rights
So a Supreme Court stacked with ideologues selected by Donald Trump is about to make an ideological decision to ban the legal right of American […]
Gordon Campbell on the impotence of onlookers
Against its will, the world has become conditioned to driving by acts of genocide and peering at them through the window with alarm – before […]
Gordon Campbell on the protests, Putin’s Pyrrhic victory, plus a playlist
The protest encampment at Parliament long ago ceased to have any rational purpose beyond perpetuating its own existence. Social media has already condemned the way […]
Gordon Campbell on freedom, and government mandates
The Omicron surge to 1160 cases a day will inevitably motivate the public to reduce all occasions of risk wherever possible, whether those venues have […]
Gordon Campbell on why compromise isn’t an option
Gosh, as one academic advocated on RNZ this morning, why don’t some politicians just go out and meet the protesters, listen to them, and suggest […]