Gordon Campbell On Selling The Recovery Mirage, And Wolf Parade
If the economy was an apartment building, the recovery would be the party that’s beginning to kick off in the penthouse flat, while everyone else […]
Welfare
Gordon Campbell On GDP Growth, And Other Holiday Diversions
No one likes being a downer at Christmas time, so…as we look forward into 2026, we can all agree that some economic growth is better […]
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 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 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 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 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 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 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 Ducking The Costs Of Climate Change
Looking for consistency in all things is said to be the hallmark of a small mind. Duly noted, but the Luxon government’s stance on climate […]
Gordon Campbell On The Government’s Epic Fails In Jobs And Housing
Through its austerity measures, the coalition government has engineered a rise in unemployment in order to reduce inflation while – simultaneously – cracking down harder […]
Gordon Campbell On ACT’s Takeover Of The Government Agenda
The ACT Party won only 8.6% of the vote last year, so how come it seems to be driving about 75% of the government’s agenda? […]
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 the government’s fast track to trashing the environment
With Shane Jones as the watchdog, who needs predators? Mining on DOC land now seems to be a fait accompli. Plainly, New Zealand‘s conservation estate […]
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’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 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 whether Winston Peters can be a moderating influence
As the centre-right has (finally!) been subjected to media interrogation, the polls are indicating that some voters may be starting to have second thoughts about […]
Gordon Campbell on National’s selling of its “social investment” policy
There’s a 19th century flavour to National’s “social investment” strategy, in that it aims to seek capital from philanthropists and charitable organisations – some of […]
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 how National’s ”new” welfare plan resurrects a past failure
Sam Uffindell’s defenders keep reminding us that he was only 16 at the time of the King’s College incident, and haven’t we all done things […]
Gordon Campbell on National’s plan to privatise welfare delivery
On the rare occasions when it ever gets asked, the public keeps rejecting tax cuts as such, as a policy priority. It keeps saying it […]
On Budget 2021’s successes and failures
In some realms of the centre-right, Budget 2021 has been portrayed as a “peak Labour” exercise in which the government has veered sharply leftwards in […]