Gordon Campbell On The Epic Falling Out Between Trump And Netanyahu
Here’s a snapshot of government priorities: one third of staff at a key facility that seeks to prevent the incidence of family and sexual violence […]
Employment
Gordon Campbell On The Social Housing Debacle, And The Red Tape Fantasy
Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Truly, the witches in Macbeth had a pretty accurate take on the government’s new demands for social housing […]
Gordon Campbell On The Public Service Chainsaw Massacre
According to Finance Minister Nicola Willis, trashing the public service (“an old clunky system” says Willis, a “make work scheme” says Christopher Luxon, “a job […]
Gordon Campbell On The Political Panic Over Immigration
In the wake of WW2, immigration policy was driven by a mixture of compassion for the refugees of war, and by a less admirable desire […]
Gordon Campbell On Our Willingness To Earn US Approval, Via China-Bashing
The Chinese Embassy is right. The recent joint statement by Australia and New Zealand condemning China’s actions in the South China Sea reads like a […]
Gordon Campbell On The Not Good, Very Bad, Terrible Unemployment Figures
As the unemployment rate hits 5.4%, the highest jobless rate in a decade, PM Christopher Luxon may be regretting his choice of “Fixing the Basics, […]
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 […]
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” […]
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 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 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 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 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 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 Sacrificing Worker Rights On The Altar Of Commerce
In the interests of efficiency, maybe Brooke van Velden should just outsource her Workplace Relations and Safety Ministry to Business NZ and be done with […]
Gordon Campbell on free speech and anti-Semitism
According to Workplace Health and Safety Minister Brooke Van Velden, employers are having to endure a “culture of fear” created by Worksafe, which has the […]
Gordon Campbell On How Slavishly This Government Is Serving Its Corporate Donors
For much of 2024, centre stage has been taken by (a) the government’s relentless attacks on all forms of Māori empowerment and (b) by the […]
Gordon Campbell on cutting the sick leave of vulnerable workers
Should sick leave be part and parcel of the working conditions from Day One on the job, just like every other health and safety provision? […]
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 […]
Gordon Campbell on the government’s politics of nostalgia
There’s a thin line between “conservative” and “reactionary.” The former strive to retain the best of current practice, while the latter want to pull everything […]
Gordon Campbell on how the state aims to dictate what the unemployed are allowed to buy
At first glance, ACT deputy leader Brooke Van Velden might seem an odd choice to oversee workplace relations. However, if the aim is to atomise […]
Gordon Campbell on the cynical brutality of the centre-right’s welfare policies
The centre-right’s enthusiasm for forcing people off the benefit and into paid work is matched only by the enthusiasm (shared by Treasury and the Reserve […]
Gordon Campbell on ACT’s anti-worker crusade, and Israeli settler violence
The ACT Party’s announcement yesterday that it aims to stop workers in the gig economy from being allowed to test in court whether they deserve […]
Gordon Campbell on the Budget
Heaven help us, but this year’s Budget is what a “targeted” and “no frills” response to the financial hardship facing hundreds of thousands of New […]