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 […]
Maori
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 what’s wrong with the Treaty Principles Bill
It has taken until 2024, but even the All Blacks now recognise that Māori are the tangata whenua of this country. There is no consensus […]
Gordon Campbell On The Hikoi Arrival, And Tyler Childers
Politicians like to bang on all about the need to heal society’s racial/economic divisions, but in their actions they’re more keen on stoking those divisions, […]
Gordon Campbell on the Crown’s sorry excuse for an apology
The world over, politicians are finding “sorry” to be the easiest word. Without disclosing the size and formula of the monetary compensation that the government […]
Gordon Campbell on the flaws in anti-gang laws
Google “Christopher Luxon“ and “mojo” and you get nearly 60,000 matching responses. Over the past 18 months – here and here and again, here – […]
Gordon Campbell on tomorrow, and the spirit of Moana Jackson
Since ACT is sponsoring the Treaty Principles Bill, it is understandable that David Seymour should be catching most of the flak being generated by the […]
Gordon Campbell on Treaty principles, and Nikki Haley’s false dawn
So the government wants to “debate” the principles of Te Tiriti, even though its own Māori Development Minister has been simultaneously assuring us that these […]
Gordon Campbell On The Government’s Assault On Maori
This isn’t news, but the National-led coalition is mounting a sustained assault on Treaty rights and obligations. Even so, Christopher Luxon has described yesterday’s nationwide […]
Gordon Campbell on the centre-right’s cynically divisive messages on race
Could be wrong, but I have a hunch that if a male Maori activist entered the home of a National Party candidate uninvited, it would […]
Gordon Campbell on sending mixed messages out on purpose
National has developed a novel election strategy. It involves being both for and against almost every issue that comes down the pike. The use of […]
Gordon Campbell on Collins’ desperation, and Joe Biden’s left-wing image
The difficulty with translating the Treaty partnership into the realities of parliamentary rule is that at best, Maori have been treated only as co-pilots, still […]
Gordon Campbell on using the Army to soak up the Covid unemployed
Once the government’s wage subsidies run out and the Covid job losses really kick in, there could – conceivably – be a role for the […]
Gordon Campbell on the Treaty/TPP overlap, and the Iowa backwash
Click for big version. The people who point out that we already have investor-state dispute settlement provisions in other trade deals and ‘so far so […]
Gordon Campbell on UE pass rates and university dropout rates
Houston, there is clearly a problem with (a) the plunge in pass rates for University Entrance qualifications, which has been especially steep among Maori students […]
Gordon Campbell on the Maori “separatism” bogey
Leadership requires the leader to set aside self-interest. It is a concept that sometimes seems quite alien to Prime Minister John Key – who has […]
On the Greens housing proposals, and Pita Sharples
In the wake of David Shearer’s Labour party conference speech last year, housing policy has become a crunch test of how well each political party […]
On the Urewera verdicts (and Nick Smith)
While the Crown regroups and rethinks about a possible retrial of the Urewera four, the country should taking a long, hard look at how the […]
On the Maori response to the SOE asset sales
The government’s relationship with the Maori Party over the partial selldown of the state’s four energy companies is not yet terminal, but it is looking […]
On David Shearer, and the Maori Party
Of the three Davids contesting the Labour leadership, David Shearer’s main appeal is as the anti-candidate, the guy who aspires to the top job after […]
On Don Brash’s race gambit (and Hugh Grant’s finest hour)
It must have been a grim moment indeed in the Act Party offices when the Resurrection of Orewa went up on the whiteboard as the […]
On the Te Tai Tokerau result
Illustration by Tim Denee – www.timdenee.com In the wake of his victory in the Te Tai Tokerau by-election, Hone Harawira has run strategic rings around […]
Gordon Campbell On The Budget – And Petrobras
Cartoon by Trace Hodgson While Deficit Phobia provides the rationale for the austerity and privatisation measures contained in this year’s Budget, the government’s stance is […]
On declaring victory in Afghanistan, and getting out
No doubt, Prime Minister John Key will be waiting on his instructions from Washington and Canberra about the final timetable for the withdrawal of NZ […]
On the nation’s gift of a plastic waka to Ngati Whatua
Wayne Youle, ‘Often Liked, Occasionally Beaten’, 2004. From the 2006 exhibition Plastic Māori – A Tradition Of Innovation There’s a something wrong with putting the […]
On the martyrdom of Hone Harawira
The notion of a Maori Party suffering patiently for five years with an untrustworthy and disruptive Hone Harawira requires a rewrite of history that isn’t […]
On Hone Harawira, and Jafar Panahi at the Oscars
None of the recommendations from yesterday’s hui in the Te Tai Tokerau electorate are likely to delight the Maori Party leadership, but the one that […]
On the options facing Hone Harawira
Image Gordon Campbell interviews Hone Harawira In the immediate aftermath of the Cuban missile crisis in the 1960s, US Secretary of State Dean Rusk issued […]
Gordon Campbell on the foreshore and seabed deal, and Gaza blockade
By Gordon Campbell The Maori Party seems to have won few immediate and tangible benefits from its long awaited deal on the foreshore and seabed […]
On the Whanau Ora scheme
At the unveiling of Whanau Ora, the government scrapped a key feature that its expert Task Force had deemed to be ‘pivotal’ – namely, that […]