Gordon Campbell - Latest News [Page 1]
On The Roe v Wade Aftermath
Monday, 27 June 2022, 1:29 pm | Gordon Campbell
Now that the right of US women to abortion (formerly protected by Roe v Wade ) has been abolished, the important role of medication-induced abortion will come even more to the fore . Already, research by the Guttmacher Institute reproductive rights ... More >>
On The Fate Of Julian Assange
Tuesday, 21 June 2022, 9:56 am | Gordon Campbell
Has swapping Scott Morrison for Anthony Albanese made any discernible difference to Australia’s relations with the US, China, the Pacific and New Zealand ? Not so far. For example: Albanese has asked for more time to “consider” his response ... More >>
On The Penny Wong Visit
Friday, 17 June 2022, 10:21 am | Gordon Campbell
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 taken by our Foreign Minister? Weird, but apparently so. All this week, a series of media ... More >>
On The Price Tag For Closer US Military Ties
Thursday, 16 June 2022, 10:27 am | Gordon Campbell
So far, the closer military relationship envisaged by Jacinda Ardern and Joseph Biden at their recent White House meeting has been analysed mainly in terms of what this means for our supposedly “independent” foreign policy. Not much attention More >>
On The Flaws In National’s Pet Solution To Gangs And Poverty
Monday, 13 June 2022, 11:58 am | Gordon Campbell
In the 50 years since Norm Kirk first promised to take the bikes off the bikies, our politicians have tried again and again to win votes by promising to crack down on gangs. Canterbury University academic Jarrod Gilbert (an expert on New Zealand’s ... More >>
On Sinai, Where It Suits Us To Waive International Treaties
Thursday, 9 June 2022, 12:47 pm | Gordon Campbell
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 wealth comes on the back of climate-changing emissions and causes serious amounts of water and ... More >>
On Why Nurses Are Our Prime Export To Australia
Tuesday, 7 June 2022, 10:50 am | Gordon Campbell
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 Wales. The conservative Perrottet NSW state government has just announced ambitious aims to recruit more than 10,000 ... More >>
On New Zealand’s Surrender To The US, Plus A Playlist
Thursday, 2 June 2022, 10:51 am | Gordon Campbell
Like a unicorn, New Zealand’s independent foreign policy is a fabulous creature – highly treasured, rarely seen but credited with magical healing powers. Some say that if judiciously applied, it could even bring peace between the warring parties ... More >>
On Regulating Guns And Supermarkets
Tuesday, 31 May 2022, 11:09 am | Gordon Campbell
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 new entrant would have to think twice before taking them on. Even if they did, it might ... More >>
On The Panic In The Pacific Over China
Friday, 27 May 2022, 1:35 pm | Gordon Campbell
For years, it has been no secret that China wants closer security and trade ties with the small nations of the Pacific region. All part of Beijing’s self-image as a global superpower. To that end this week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi embarked ... More >>
On The Criminalising Of Rap Music
Wednesday, 25 May 2022, 11:54 am | Gordon Campbell
For black youth in America, there can be only three ways out of the ghetto: athletics, music or drug dealing. And for every individual who succeeds in making it out, dozens more attach themselves to their celebrity crews in order to bask in the reflected ... More >>
On The Lessons From Australia’s Election
Monday, 23 May 2022, 11:53 am | Gordon Campbell
Australia’s new PM Anthony Albanese faces an obvious dilemma, barely before he gets his feet under the desk. Australia is the world’s leading exporter of coal. Will the new Labor government prioritise the jobs for Queensland/NSW workers in its ... More >>
On Budget 2022
Friday, 20 May 2022, 9:49 am | Gordon Campbell
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 of the economy and better steward of social wellbeing – National or Labour? In its own quiet way, the Treasury has buried ... More >>
On The Australian Election Toss-up
Wednesday, 18 May 2022, 12:43 pm | Gordon Campbell
The foibles of the Aussie electoral system are pretty well-known. The Lucky Country doesn’t have proportional representation. Voting for everyone over 18 is compulsory, but within a preferential system. This means that in the relatively few key seats ... More >>
On The Emissions Reduction Plan Non-Event
Tuesday, 17 May 2022, 11:12 am | Gordon Campbell
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 heat from the global warming issue before next year’s election. What we got from yesterday’s $2.9 billion ... More >>
On Rabuka’s Possible Return In Fiji
Thursday, 12 May 2022, 12:51 pm | Gordon Campbell
Fiji signed onto China’s Belt and Road initiative in 2018, along with a separate agreement on economic co-operation and aid. Yet it took the recent security deal between China and the Solomon Islands to get the belated attention of the US and ... More >>
On The Youth Crime Furore
Monday, 9 May 2022, 12:17 pm | Gordon Campbell
So far, the excited media response to the spike in “ram-raid” incidents is being countered by evidence that in reality, youth crime is steeply in decline, and has been so for much of the past decade. Who knew? Perhaps that’s the real issue here. ... More >>
On Abortion Rights
Thursday, 5 May 2022, 11:23 am | Gordon Campbell
So a Supreme Court stacked with ideologues selected by Donald Trump is about to make an ideological decision to ban the legal right of American women to an abortion. In their infinite wisdom, the US courts have decided that the government cannot force ... More >>
On Political Can-kicking, And The “Louie Louie” Saga
Monday, 2 May 2022, 11:20 am | Gordon Campbell
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 thriftily efficient in running social programmes that - left to its own devices – a National government would ... More >>
On Parker’s Tax Plan And Musk’s Twitter Purchase
Thursday, 28 April 2022, 11:16 am | Gordon Campbell
Such is our devotion to the ordinary Kiwi battler, we ruthlessly tax the wages they earn and the stuff they buy, while letting people who amass wealth from speculative investment (and stash it in trusts) to go on their merry way, largely untroubled ... More >>