Gordon Campbell On The Secret Pact On Rare Earth Minerals, And The India FTA
Drill and dig, baby. The week began with the coalition government giving an Australian mining company the green light for an open cast gold mine […]
Australia
Gordon Campbell On The Wisdom Of Driving Faster Up An Economic Cul De Sac, And The Bondi Aftermath
Tomorrow is a long time, as Bob Dylan once said, and while Dylan wasn’t singing about our prospects of economic recovery, the mood of frustrated […]
Gordon Campbell On Why The State Wants To Regulate How Children Play
Reportedly, the on again, off again debate between Ruth Richardson and Nicola Willis may be on again. Fabolous. Nothing can help us better understand a […]
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 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 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 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 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 New Zealand’s Peter Thiel Problem
Reportedly, the moral revulsion being felt around the world at Israel’s actions in Gaza has induced 24 countries to sign a joint letter calling on […]
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 […]
Gordon Campbell on China, University Funding, Ukraine
Gosh. According to a tip leaked to a journalist from the Australian newspaper by an anonymous source whose identity cannot be disclosed for secret squirrel […]
Gordon Campbell on how private profits are driving Defence spending
Speak of the devil. The Australian website Crikey has just launched an investigative series about the notorious lobbying firm Crosby Textor, or C/T as it […]
Gordon Campbell on the endless spending on Defence
Defence is the one area of government spending where the politicians never, ever demand – but how on earth do we propose to pay for […]
Gordon Campbell on tax injustice, and on being prepped for war with China
The IRD’s significant research proves that the rich (on average) are taxed on their income at less than half the rate paid by ordinary wage […]
Gordon Campbell on the Aussie citizenship changes
In all likelihood, Anthony Albanese and Chris Hipkins have quite different readings of the pathway to citizenship that has just been opened up for Kiwis […]
Gordon Campbell on the reasons for opposing AUKUS
In the early 1980s, New Zealand walked out of the ANZUS pact on principle, rather than be an accomplice to nuclear war. We now seem […]
Gordon Campbell on AUKUS and Australia’s decision on nuclear subs
Update: Evidently, Reuters were correct in the major details reported below on Werewolf, prior to the official AUKUS announcement. Yes, the US will begin to […]
Gordon Campbell on King Coal’s comeback, plus a music playlist
Of late, the news bulletins have been carrying alarming images of extreme flooding in parts of Asia, and extreme drought across Europe. Pakistan has 7,000 […]
Gordon Campbell on why we should pay Kiwis living abroad
This morning, National’s deputy leader Nicola Willis managed to get top of the bulletin news coverage by pointing out that some Kiwis living abroad might […]
Gordon Campbell on the Pacific Islands Forum gathering
In recent months, China has been widely portrayed as a major strategic threat to the Pacific region, yet the Pacific states themselves beg to differ. […]
Gordon Campbell on the fate of Julian Assange
Has swapping Scott Morrison for Anthony Albanese made any discernible difference to Australia’s relations with the US, China, the Pacific and New Zealand ? Not […]
Gordon Campbell on the Penny Wong visit
Good grief. Has foreign policy commentary really devolved to the point where our diplomatic effort is being measured by how many overseas trips have been […]
Gordon Campbell on why nurses are our prime export to Australia
That giant sucking noise is the sound of the jobs of our nurses, doctors, and midwives being vacuumed up by medical recruiters from New South […]
Gordon Campbell on the lessons from Australia’s election
Australia’s new PM Anthony Albanese faces an obvious dilemma, barely before he gets his feet under the desk. Australia is the world’s leading exporter of […]
Gordon Campbell on the Australian election toss-up
The foibles of the Aussie electoral system are pretty well-known. The Lucky Country doesn’t have proportional representation. Voting for everyone over 18 is compulsory, but […]
Gordon Campbell on rapid antigen testing
National Party leader Christopher Luxon is being allowed to get away with murder. Luxon is not being challenged over his repeated assertions that the rest […]
Gordon Campbell on the ethics of Omicron treatment, plus a playlist
As the Omicron infection wave prepares to break across New Zealand, the “red” condition is likely to be more of a form of gestural politics, […]
Gordon Campbell on Australia’s failed model of Covid best practice
In decades gone by, New Zealanders tended to diss this country by comparing it to how much better things were in the States, or in […]
Gordon Campbell on fostering the culture of Covid complaint
Success can be its own worst enemy. If the plane doesn’t crash or the ship doesn’t sink, that doesn’t prove the safety measures were unnecessary, […]
Gordon Campbell on Defence’s desire to join the ”lets confront China” club
China has been put on notice by us. According to the New Zealand Defence Assessment 2021 report released on Wednesday, and set out in bold […]