Gordon Campbell On The Toxic Police Culture That Enabled Jevon McSkimming
In the wake of the IPCA report, it is easy to understand why the politicians have been so willing to endorse terms like “cover up” […]
Columns
Gordon Campbell On Asset Sales, And Targeting The Homeless
So asset sales are back on the agenda, and will be dependent only on the coalition government getting re-elected next year. Yikes. Right wing governments […]
Gordon Campbell On Mamdani, And How The Luxon Government Is Expanding The Powers Of The State
First, some good news. Zohran Mamdani has won the mayoral race in New York and as the prophet Leonard Cohen once said, taking Manhattan is […]
Gordon Campbell On How Rich People Feel Affronted By A Capital Gains Tax
But first…the “shock and awe” tactics being deployed by the government against the teaching profession are extensive. They include ramming through rushed and comprehensive curriculum […]
Gordon Campbell On Our Looming Spending Spree On Japanese Frigates
Like the Americans, maybe we should be re-naming our Ministry of Defence as the Ministry of War. The new frigates New Zealand is about to […]
Gordon Campbell On Labour’s CGT, The Government’s Mean Spirit, And Timor-Leste’s Future
Finally, Labour has released its capital gains tax policy. Labour’s CGT would levy a 28% tax on sales of commercial properties and investment housing, and […]
Gordon Campbell On The Coalition’s Peddling Of Bad News As Good News
At what point does a Cabinet minister distorting the statistics on issues in their portfolio amount to a sackable offence? Earlier this week, Children’s Minister […]
Gordon Campbell On Māori Customary Rights, And Why Trump Thinks We Don’t Need AUKUS
If something isn’t really broken, no wonder people feel suspicious when government promises to “fix” it to the potential benefit of corporate interests. In 2011, […]
Gordon Campbell On Why The Nation Seems To Be Stuck With Christopher Luxon
When you wheel out Judith Collins as your weapon of last resort, you’ve already lost the battle for public opinion, and are pitching your messages […]
Gordon Campbell On The Government’s Dodgy Claims About Reading Achievement
The spectacular improvements in reading achievement announced by Education Minister Erica Stanford on Monday were almost too good to be true – so it isn’t […]
Gordon Campbell On New Zealand’s Willing Submission To The Pentagon’s Command And Control
Decades ago, Alexander Cockburn wrote a column pointing out that the true believers in the power and precision of the defence industry’s latest weaponry tend […]
Gordon Campbell On Our Tanking Economy, And US Vigilante Justice
Imagine your house has a plumbing problem. A plumbing firm tendering for the job assures you that hey, no problem they can fix it, so […]
Gordon Campbell On Luxon Advising Young People To Get Out While They Still Can
If anyone under 35 still had mixed feelings about leaving New Zealand to build a future elsewhere, PM Christopher Luxon probably sealed the deal this […]
Gordon Campbell On The Social Media Ban For Young Kids
Young people have been going to the dogs ever since oh, 1912. The proposed social media ban for under 16 year olds (14 years is […]
Gordon Campbell On Sickness Leave, And On Our Muted Call On Statehood For Palestine
Sickness doesn’t work part-time, which is one of the design flaws in the government plans to amend the Holidays Act. Once the revamped Employment Leave […]
Gordon Campbell On Sudan’s Largely Forgotten War
For the past three years, Western media outlets have been focussed on the wars in Gaza and Ukraine (and on the US vs China trade […]
Gordon Campbell On Our Recognition Of Palestine, And Those $70 Million Concert Subsidies
Thankfully, the end is in sight for the government’s dance of the seven veils over recognising the state of Palestine, and for Labour’s rampant indecision […]
Gordon Campbell On The Phillips Kids And Why It’s OK To Not Mourn Charlie Kirk
No bread, all circuses. Allegedly, the cupboard is bare when it comes to putting extra money on the table to offer nurses, teachers and junior […]
Gordon Campbell On Playing Performative Politics While The Economy (And The Public Health System) Burns
As the old saying goes, “With your eyes, you enter the world. But with your ears, the world enters you.” This may explain why hearing […]
Gordon Campbell On The Decline Of Winston Peters, And The Attacks On Helen Clark
As usual, last weekend’s New Zealand First conference in Palmerston North was very much about the Dear Leader. Alas, and like many other gentlemen of […]
Gordon Campbell On Why Data Centres Are Not Your (Or The Planet’s) Friend
It sounds too good to be true. A giant multinational mothership – Amazon Web Services aka AWS – it supposedly intent on spending $7.5 billion […]
Gordon Campbell On Why The Government Isn’t Fixing The Cost Of Living Crisis
These are the perennial political questions that every incumbent government has to face. Do people feel better/wealthier/more secure now than they were three years ago? […]
Gordon Campbell On ACT’s Fake Defence Of Equality
For people blessed with privilege, their head start becomes so normalised that the advantages of wealth, better education, good housing, better healthcare, white skin and […]
Gordon Campbell On A Troubling Innovation In Healthcare, And Moral Inertia Over Gaza
In China during the Cultural Revolution, “barefoot doctors” would be trained in the basics of healthcare, and then sent off to work in rural areas […]
Gordon Campbell On Teachers, Ferries And The Really Wasteful Spending
In the context of yesterday’s teachers strike, Judith Collins claimed that teachers with ten years of experience “can” (not “do”) earn $147,000 a year. In […]
Gordon Campbell On The Lack Of Spine In New Zealand’s Foreign Policy On Gaza
The word “Gaza” is taking on similar connotations to what the word “ Auschwitz” meant to a previous generation. It signifies a deliberate and systematic […]
Gordon Campbell On Labour’s Soft Support In The Polls
Currently, Labour is a receptacle for the widespread public dis-illusionment with the Luxon administration. However, this week’s poll results– which would deliver a hung Parliament […]
Gordon Campbell On A Clueless Government Running A Jobless Economy
One of the whoppers told regularly by Nicola Willis and Christopher Luxon is that National inherited a terrible, no good economy from Labour, with rampant […]
Gordon Campbell On New Zealand’s Role In The New ANZUS Remake
Want Donald Trump to lower the tariffs on your exports to US markets? Easy. Offer him money. Lots of it. As the New York Times […]
Gordon Campbell On The Perils Of Trading With Trump
Luxon did protest too much on the weekend. Sure, the credulous party faithful were willing to believe him as he continued to lay the blame […]