Gordon Campbell On The Hikoi Aftermath
The euphoria from yesterday’s hikoi may be transitory, but is no less valuable for that. It is pretty rare for the left to feel itself […]
Columns
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, […]
Gordon Campbell on the folly of making apologies in a social vacuum.
Day One of the Treaty Principles Bill…and everyone got what they wanted, and did what they liked. Heated words were exchanged. Culturally appropriate acts of […]
Gordon Campbell on the Crown’s sorry excuse for an apology
The world over, politicians are finding “sorry” to be the easiest word. Without disclosing the size and formula of the monetary compensation that the government […]
Gordon Campbell on abortion’s role in the US election
Yesterday, America moved decisively to the right not only politically, but socially and economically. This rightwards shift was evident not merely in the red states […]
Gordon Campbell On US Voter Suppression, Plus The Races To Watch
On Wednesday evening, as our television relays images of long lines of people queuing to vote, keep this in mind: since 2012, America has closed […]
Gordon Campbell on America’s fear of foreigners
Mike King’s latest comments about the relationship between alcohol and mental health – according to King, alcohol does more good than harm – raises red […]
Gordon Campbell on why so many young males like Donald Trump
To foreigners, the fact that so many millions of Americans are buying the used and poisonous goods that Donald Trump is selling is an unfathomable […]
Gordon Campbell on dissing Wellington, and Porridge Radio
National has never forgiven Wellington – or its public servants – for voting for Labour and the Greens. (Red-blooded Kiwis work in the private sector.) […]
Gordon Campbell on the Three Strikes cycle of failure
We all know the “tough on crime” approach is only a stop gap measure at best, and that a justice model based on incarceration doesn’t […]
Gordon Campbell on the language of healthcare, and Mink DeVille
So far, the Great Multi-lingual Healthcare Crisis has passed by without any damage to life, or to limbs. To date, no-one appears to have mistaken […]
Gordon Campbell on Conservative ghosts, Holly Arrowsmith and Fazerdaze
Clearly, Israel is intent on de-populating Gaza for Israeli re-settlement, and is using military force as a form of state terrorism to depopulate swathes of […]
Gordon Campbell On Luxon Living In Denial About His Privilege
In the same week that food banks have been forced to close for lack of government support, Auditor-General John Ryan has slammed the process by […]
Gordon Campbell on The Coalition’s Fast-tracked Speed Dates With Property Developers
On the weekend, Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop admitted that not everyone will “like” his fast track wish-list, before adding: “We are a government that does […]
Gordon Campbell on the perils of Israel’s war fever
Israel seems on the brink of achieving the war with Iran that Benjamin Netanyahu has been trying all year to provoke. Until now, Iran had […]
On The Government’s Bizarre Hostility To A Capital Gains Tax
Oyez oyez, CEO Antonia Watson, CEO of the biggest bank in New Zealand has come out in favour of a capital gains tax! Actually, this is not a daring new idea. Over the past three decades the IMF, the World Bank, the expert Tax Working Group and most mainstream economists have all treated our lack of a capital gains tax as a globally unusual flaw in our tax system, and harmful to this country’s prosperity.
Gordon Campbell On Nicola Willis’ Perverse Hostility To Working From Home
Work-in-the-office mandates? Hell yes, Finance Minister Nicola Willis is all for them. Given half the chance, she believes, “some people but not all” will just skive off, otherwise. Willis is happy to barge in and tell departmental heads how …
On New Zealand’s Timid Reluctance To Tax The Rich
“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to […]
Gordon Campbell On ACT’s Plans To Strip Away The Rights Of Gig Economy Workers
Common sense tells us that power in the workplace is not evenly divided. That’s one reason why the ability to bargain collectively is such an […]
Gordon Campbell On Why Political Consensus Is SO Divisive
05 Sept, 2024 Around the halls of Parliament in Wellington, displays of bi-partisan agreement are reserved for wars, sporting triumphs or the deaths of monarchs. […]
Gordon Campbell On The Mindset Driving The Crisis In Public Health
02 Sept, 2024 As far as the rest of the country is concerned,Wellington rarely has a Goldilocks moment. Central government is either too involved in […]
Gordon Campbell On Cricket’s Betrayal Of Afghan Women And Girls
30 August, 2024 The Black Caps are to play a test match against Afghanistan between September 9-13, in India. So far, the biggest news story […]
Gordon Campbell On Luxon And Seymour’s Good Cop/Bad Cop Routine On The Treaty
This past week has seen Wellington’s ruling coalition of chaos in fully dysfunctional mode. In the last six days, the ACT Party and New Zealand […]
Gordon Campbell On Funding New Drugs, And Governing In Bad Faith
Like the arms race, the funding of new cancer drugs is an endless upwards spiral. First though, let’s have the good news. Yesterday, the Phamac […]
Gordon Campbell On How “fast Track” Steamrolls The Public Good
New Zealand has a habit of creating official posts – the Overseas Investment Office, the Banking Ombudsman, the Grocery Commissioner – as a sop to […]
Gordon Campbell On The Plague Of The Seymourites
What a charlatan David Seymour is. Like one of those American Televangelists he so closely resembles, the enemy of bureaucracy is now building his own […]
Gordon Campbell On Why Workers Get Treated As Disposable
National is SO very opposed to ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill that it is willing to waste time and money on supporting its first reading and […]
Gordon Campbell On ACT’s Takeover Of The Government Agenda
The ACT Party won only 8.6% of the vote last year, so how come it seems to be driving about 75% of the government’s agenda? […]
Gordon Campbell On The Crackdown On The Beneficiary Poor
For the past 50 years, the centre-right has been using beneficiaries as a political punching bag. This was (slightly) more forgivable during the Muldoon era, […]
Gordon Campbell On Making Profits From The Ferries Fiasco
Finance Minister Nicola Willis has taken a ton of flak for not having a Plan B in place before she cancelled Kiwirail’s contract for the […]