Gordon Campbell on the midterms, Adrian Orr and taxing the Banks
It used to be a joke, but it seems that a lot of Republicans really might have moved to Florida to escape from the gulag […]
Economy
Gordon Campbell on bank profits, and the US midterms
So far, the political response to excessive bank profits has held up a mirror to party identity. Labour thinks the level of bank profits is […]
Gordon Campbell on why wages and jobs shouldn’t be inflation cannon fodder
Hearing Don Brash being wheeled out on RNZ as an expert on taming inflation must have caused whiplash among some listeners. Contrary to myth, Brash‘s […]
Gordon Campbell On The Battle Over Emissions Pricing
According to the leader of the National Party, farmers are this country’s true conservationists, and tireless in their efforts to protect the environment on which […]
Gordon Campbell on why New Zealand isn’t heavily taxed
Allegedly, New Zealand is a highly taxed country with a government prone to big spending. Supposedly, that’s why we need to scrap the top tax […]
Gordon Campbell on why nothing succeeds like failure
As predicted in this column on Tuesday, the Bank of England has finally intervened to bail Britain out of its self-inflicted economic crisis. The Bank […]
Gordon Campbell on what Britain’s tax cutting spree means for us
Well, that didn’t take long. Briefly, the pageantry of the royal funeral had made Britain look like a world power again. But last Friday’s package […]
Gordon Campbell on ram-raids as a policy outcome, not a cause
New British PM Liz Truss is giving us a useful foretaste of what a change of government here next year would deliver: tax cuts, welfare […]
Gordon Campbell on Air New Zealand’s bumpy path to Covid recovery
Air New Zealand’s new non-stop service to JFK international airport in New York recently received a ton of free publicity, even though the airline’s mishandling […]
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 Labour’s self-inflicted Kiwisaver disaster
In years to come, the Great Kiwisaver Fees Fiasco is going to be taught in schools as a lesson in political mis-management. To put it […]
Gordon Campbell on the centre-left’s reluctance to pursue radical options
The term “Overton Window” was coined by the US political scientist Joseph Overton, and it refers to the policies deemed to be politically acceptable at […]
Gordon Campbell on our paranoid policies on immigration
If only we could take one tenth of the energy we currently expend on worrying about what Ian Foster’s coaching policies are doing to the […]
Gordon Campbell on why the state buying Kiwibank is no big deal
So… The government itself has bought Kiwibank off its current trio of state-related owners (NZ Post, NZ Super Fund and the ACC) in a transaction […]
Gordon Campbell on why big spenders are not our tourism salvation
Covid and climate change have been changing the face of tourism. That’s why it seemed oddly premature last week for Tourism Minister Stuart to announce […]
Gordon Campbell on National’s incredible disappearing tax policy
During the years of the Key government one hardy perennial of political journalism was that whenever the Labour Opposition would suggest a policy alternative to […]
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 Greens, and on free market myopia
Climate change has gone from being one of those allegedly wacky Green ideas to wide mainstream acceptance. In their own ways, leaders like Jeanette Fitzsimons, […]
Gordon Campbell on the trade deal with the Europeans
We’ve grown so used to thinking the “we punch above our weight” cliché is real that the shortcomings in our free trade deal with the […]
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 Sinai, where it suits us to waive international treaties
Farmers are currently enjoying the highest prices and payouts in the history of this country. They will never be better placed to acknowledge that their […]
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 regulating guns and supermarkets
Thanks to decades of free market zealots opposed on principle to sensible regulation… We’re now faced with a supermarket duopoly so entrenched that any prospective […]
Gordon Campbell on Budget 2022
At base, the political biffo back and forth on the merits of Budget 2022 comes down to only one thing. Who is the better manager […]
Gordon Campbell on the Emissions Reduction Plan non-event
Clearly, the attempt to take the politics out of climate change has itself been a political decision, and one meant to remove much of the […]
Gordon Campbell On Political Can-kicking, And The“ Louie Louie” Saga
One of the more infuriating aspects of the current political debate is the way the National Party says it would be more rigorous, and more […]
Gordon Campbell on Ukraine virtue signalling, and our inflation spike
Inflation at 6.9% is a bad sign of the rising cost of living, and hidden within the headline numbers are some even grislier figures. As […]
Gordon Campbell on good riddance to the America’s Cup
So the America’s Cup defence is off to Barcelona. Supposedly, if you could drill a hole through Auckland to the other side of the world, […]
Gordon Campbell on Christopher Luxon’s trashing of the poor
For years, Nicola Willis and Chris Bishop have been routinely described as belonging to the “liberal” wing of the National Party, as if National is […]
Gordon Campbell on Luxon’s “cost of living crisis” gambit
Clearly, no-one should underestimate the political pulling power of a suit offering tax cuts. Last week’s rise of Christopher Luxon and the National Party in […]