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Gordon Campbell - Latest News [Page 108]
David Garrett’s lewdness, and Christine Rankin
Monday, 22 June 2009, 11:31 am | Gordon Campbell
Rodney Hide’s excuses for the lewd comment by his Act party colleague David Garrett – that he is new to Parliament, that he may be slow to realize that he is not still working on an oil rig etc etc. – are bizarre, and a bit desperate. More >>
Campbell: Peter Jackson’s Film Commission review
Friday, 19 June 2009, 11:42 am | Gordon Campbell
The selection of Peter Jackson to lead the ministerial review of the New Zealand Film Commission guarantees the review a prominence that no-one else in New Zealand could provide. Yet this appointment is not simply a public relations coup. As Arts ... More >>
Key’s Zen press conference, Iran’s stolen election
Tuesday, 16 June 2009, 10:13 am | Gordon Campbell
Faced with the dying embers of the Richard Worth scandal at his press conference yesterday , John Key reached for gasoline, not water. The press gallery had begun a simple enough line of enquiry – what HAD caused Key to lose trust in Worth? There ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on censorship – bring back Worth!
Friday, 12 June 2009, 10:56 am | Gordon Campbell
One downside of Richard Worth’s exit from his ministerial post at Internal Affairs will be to further postpone any fix of the blatant contradictions in the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993. The case for change in this legislation ... More >>
Campbell: Hide’s plan for gutting local democracy
Tuesday, 9 June 2009, 9:42 am | Gordon Campbell
Rodney Hide’s agenda for local government involves – as Scoop reported six months ago – the importation of an American model that has resulted in drastic cutbacks in the public services provided by local government, and the privatization of some ... More >>
Gordon Campbell: Tiananmen Massacre, Richard Worth
Thursday, 4 June 2009, 10:11 am | Gordon Campbell
Today is the 20th anniversary of the massacre in Tiananmen Square. In the early morning hours of June 4th 1989, thousands of unarmed students and workers were shot down or crushed by Red Army troops and tanks sent in by the Communist Party to destroy ... More >>
Gordon Campbell On The Greens Leadership Change
Sunday, 31 May 2009, 9:40 pm | Gordon Campbell
Talk about the bleedingly obvious. In the aftermath of the last election, the Green Party moved a few floors upwards into more spacious digs in Bowen House. One area was reserved for three MPs whose offices were adjacent and whose names appeared together ... More >>
Gordon Campbell: The Budget’s tightening noose
Friday, 29 May 2009, 12:07 pm | Gordon Campbell
Judging by the Budget, the good news is that Finance Minister Bill English is not the beady eyed ‘lets take this theory and see if it works on people’ sort of ideologue that we saw in the 80s, early 90s. That’s about where the good bit ends. ... More >>
Gordon Campbell: Budget to push the “P” button?
Tuesday, 26 May 2009, 10:44 am | Gordon Campbell
The tone of the Budget is almost as important as its content, and while everyone – for good reason – is expecting a grim Budget on Thursday, there are political reasons why there also has to light at the end of the tunnel, a vision of triumph ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on the power company rip-offs
Friday, 22 May 2009, 10:07 am | Gordon Campbell
Spot the difference. A Rotorua couple get $10 million overpaid by Westpac into their bank account and hive off with it, with Interpol and the police pouring over the paper trail, in hot pursuit. The four main power companies get $4.4 billion overpaid ... More >>
Gordon Campbell: The need to control loan sharks
Tuesday, 19 May 2009, 11:40 am | Gordon Campbell
As jobs vanish and incomes shrink during the recession, loan sharks can be expected to prey more avidly on poor and vulnerable communities. After all, even the main lending banks have hardly been innocent of predatory lending practices. More >>
Campbell on the Christine Rankin appointment
Friday, 15 May 2009, 10:46 am | Gordon Campbell
According to Key, Rankin’s controversial status in the 90s came down to (a) her lavish expenditure on a single WINZ conference. And (b) in any case, Key could think of no New Zealander who had done more than Christine Rankin to highlight the problem ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on the Melissa Lee Factor
Thursday, 14 May 2009, 10:31 am | Gordon Campbell
Melissa Lee’s emergence as the poster child of the Key government is so apt, it makes the process of politics seem karmically ordained. It is rare indeed to find arrogance and ignorance combined so exquisitely in the one harsh and clanging package, ... More >>
Gordon Campbell On Auckland's Recession
Monday, 11 May 2009, 9:32 am | Gordon Campbell
Is the recession something that is mainly happening to Aucklanders? Last Thursday’s Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS) contained evidence to support that notion. Nationally, the recession effects are being felt and worse is being projected, but the figures ... More >>
Campbell: McCully’s oversell of aid changes
Friday, 8 May 2009, 11:06 am | Gordon Campbell
The belated release yesterday of the April 23 Cabinet papers on the changes to New Zealand’s aid programme suggest that Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully has been more mouth than trousers on this topic. Of late, McCully has been talking up ... More >>
Gordon Campbell: the Labour re-shuffle, Mt Albert
Tuesday, 5 May 2009, 3:47 pm | Gordon Campbell
The Labour re-shuffle of its front bench and shadow portfolio areas is an understandable move. Six months into a new leadership, senior figures such as Michael Cullen leaving….it is all very timely. Also, the May 28 Budget will be a defining moment for the Key ... More >>
Gordon Campbell: The risks of cutting wages
Tuesday, 5 May 2009, 11:51 am | Gordon Campbell
Obviously, the jobs situation in New Zealand is deteriorating. On current trends, unemployment is now expected to reach 8 per cent before this recession is over. Still, in today’s New York Times, economist Paul Krugman takes a hard look at the paradox ... More >>
Campbell: Russel Norman, our SAS in Afghanistan
Monday, 4 May 2009, 9:49 am | Gordon Campbell
So David Shearer is to be the Labour candidate in Mt Albert. The claims by Greens Co-Leader Russel Norman on Morning Report that this leaves Norman as the only progressive candidate on offer in the Mt Albert by-election were singularly depressing, as an ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on the swine flu epidemic
Wednesday, 29 April 2009, 10:48 am | Gordon Campbell
Interesting that John Key began his press conference on Monday by covering off the politics of the swine flu epidemic first. No false modesty from him. New Zealand’s response, he claimed, had been swift, thorough and appropriate. More >>
Gordon Campbell: The Greens' deal with National
Monday, 27 April 2009, 11:25 am | Gordon Campbell
The decision by Greens Co-Leader Russel Norman to stand in the Mt Albert by-election on June 13 is the latest example of the Greens’ attempts to re-position themselves on the political spectrum, given the likelihood of a two term National government. ... More >>
