Gordon Campbell On Our Faith-Based Economic Recovery
For months, the economic recovery has been said to be imminent, and the forecasters at the banks keep promoting that message, even though the former […]
Economy
Gordon Campbell On The Ferries Fiasco, Soft Power And Gaza
Good to hear someone calling “bullshit” on Winston Peters, and on his claims to have saved the taxpayer $2.3 billion on the Cook Strait ferries. […]
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 […]
Gordon Campbell On Why The Free Market Is A Scam, Plus The Epstein Saga
In the shadow of the Holocaust at the end of WWII, the world passed a raft of United Nations/Geneva conventions to ensure that states could […]
Gordon Campbell On Why The Regulatory Standards Bill Is A Hot Mess
When the politician pushing a controversial piece of legislation starts accusing his critics of “derangement syndrome” – as David Seymour has done this week – […]
Gordon Campbell on National’s crackdown on shoplifters
Politicians do like being tough on crime. Flexing law and order muscle is a feature of the patriarchal Daddy State, and is beloved by the […]
Gordon Campbell On The Government’s Stubborn Refusal To Invest For Growth
Economists have earned their reputation for jargon and tunnel vision, but sometimes, it takes an someone as perceptive as Simplicity economist Shamubeel Eaqub to identify […]
Gordon Campbell On The Government’s Gaslighting About Growth
Donald Trump made his fortune by speculating in real estate. These days, Christopher Luxon makes a lot of his money the very same way. True, […]
Gordon Campbell On Why We Can’t Survive Two More Years Of This
Remember those silent movies where the heroine is tied to the railway tracks or going over the waterfall in a barrel? Finance Minister Nicola Willis […]
Gordon Campbell on the US opposition to mortgage interest deductibility for landlords
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and […]
Gordon Campbell on Labour’s fear of commitment
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax […]
Gordon Campbell on the attack of the tax cut zombies, and a music playlist
As long ago as 2007, New Zealanders were telling pollsters that while they wanted tax cuts, a majority of the public opposed tax cuts if […]
Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) […]
Gordon Campbell on Luxon’s landlord myths, and the needless nightmare of high interest rates
During the PM’s post-Cabinet press conference yesterday, Christopher Luxon claimed that renters will be feeling “grateful” for the way the government is putting “downward pressure“ […]
Gordon Campbell on National spreading panic about the economy
It is a political strategy as old as time. Scare the public with tales of disaster and stampede them into supporting your ideological agenda because […]
Gordon Campbell on National passing bad policies under urgency
If National really had faith in its welfare policies, it wouldn’t be ramming them through Parliament under urgency – a step that means the policies […]
Gordon Campbell on National’s misleading policy packaging
Truth in packaging can be a political rarity, but the gap between what the Luxon administration says it is doing and what its policies will […]