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
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 […]
Gordon Campbell On Making Profits By Trashing Consumer Protections
In any part of the globe, the research is conclusive that the health benefits to babies from breastfeeding exceed those obtainable from infant formula. Moreover, […]
Gordon Campbell on who’s making gold from the Olympics
When it comes to real Olympic gold, it’s hard to go past the $1.25 billion in advertising revenues that’s been sold off the back of […]
Gordon Campbell on the government crusade to degrade public health
If anything finally convinces voters that the Luxon government is a deadly risk to life and limb, it will be the damage it is doing […]
Gordon Campbell On The Greens’ Darleen Tana Dilemma, And The Weirdness Of J.D. Vance
List MPs are on shakier ground than electorate MPs if they resign (or get expelled) from the party under whose banner they entered Parliament. An […]
Gordon Campbell on the Royal Commission inquiry into abuse in care
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of […]
Gordon Campbell on a textbook case of spending waste by the Luxon government
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks […]
Gordon Campbell On The Biden Withdrawal
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On […]
Gordon Campbell on why right wingers think all governments (including their own) are incompetent
Since open denial of climate change is no longer a viable political option, denial now comes in disguise. The release this week of the coalition […]
Gordon Campbell on the Trump shooting and a potential hike in fees for visiting the doctor
Having watched Donald Trump systematically exploit social grievances, urge people not to accept his election loss and incite his followers to violent insurrection… it is […]
Gordon Campbell on Luxon in the NATO pressure cooker
New Zealand is one of six countries invited as onlookers to this week’s NATO summit in Washington. As such, PM Christopher Luxon will be made […]
Gordon Campbell on the elections in France, Iran and Britain
As Werewolf predicted a week ago, it was premature to call Emmanuel Macron’s snap election call “a bitter failure” and “a humiliating defeat” purely on […]
Gordon Campbell on saving journalists, not an industry that routinely exploits them
Labour is saying it needs to listen. Apparently, Labour is going to spend 2024 listening, and 2025 thinking about its options. It could be 2026 […]
Gordon Campbell on Macron’s gamble, and Biden’s last stand
Emmanuel Macron’s plan B involves a risky, rope-a-dope strategy. Deliberately, he has opened a corridor to power for the far right, in the belief they […]
Gordon Campbell on the freeing of Julian Assange
Finally, Julian Assange is free after 12 years of confinement, much of it spent while under the threat of rendition to the US to face […]
Gordon Campbell on cancer drugs, and the Great Ferries Cancellation Disaster of ’23
The decision taken last December to cancel the contract for the two purpose-built Cook Strait ferries – without having a Plan B in mind, let […]
Gordon Campbell on why we shouldn’t buy new planes for the PM
Its not often that one has to agree with Judith Collins, but yes, it would indeed cost “hundreds of millions of dollars” (at least) to […]
Gordon Campbell on why the Biden “peace plan” for Gaza is doomed
After months and months of blocking every attempt by the UN and everyone else to achieve a Gaza ceasefire, US President Joe Biden is now […]