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Gordon Campbell - Latest News [Page 108]
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 >>
Campbell: Selling our defence bases to speculators
Wednesday, 22 April 2009, 10:09 am | Gordon Campbell
The proposal to sell our defence bases and lease them back to the armed forces from their new, private sector landlords is a pretty good example of the short term thinking that is driving the whole process of public private partnerships. Any wishful thinking ... More >>
Campbell: Plans to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities
Monday, 20 April 2009, 12:05 pm | Gordon Campbell
During the election campaign last year, Joe Biden caused a mini-flap by suggesting that within his first six months in office, Presaident Barack Obama would be tested in an international crisis by one of America’s enemies. Increasingly though, it ... More >>
Gordon Campbell On Fiji And Its Critics
Sunday, 19 April 2009, 10:36 am | Gordon Campbell
Oh dear. In the black and white universe in which the likes of No Right Turn reside, I’m now allegedly a supporter of despotism norightturn.blogspot.com for daring to present evidence that the structure of the Fiji electoral system – as played ... More >>
Gordon Campbell On Fiji And Its Critics
Saturday, 18 April 2009, 11:19 pm | Gordon Campbell
Oh dear. In the black and white universe in which the likes of No Right Turn reside, I’m now allegedly a supporter of despotism for daring to present evidence that the structure of the Fiji electoral system – as played out in the elections of ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on events in Fiji
Thursday, 16 April 2009, 10:35 am | Gordon Campbell
Chris Trotter is well able to look after himself, but the recent criticism on him by No Right Turn over the Fiji situation is worth a few comments. The notion that an election, any election is an over-riding litmus test of political legitimacy cannot ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on WINZ and food banks, Fiji
Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 9:55 am | Gordon Campbell
A few months ago, Scoop asked Paula Bennett at John Key’s post-Cabinet press conference whether she saw a pressing need – in the light of the global financial crisis – to relax the criteria for special assistance to families who would become dependent ... More >>
Campbell: The pre-ordained demise of Auckland
Tuesday, 7 April 2009, 10:31 am | Gordon Campbell
Barely five months into the Key administration, the centre right is plainly making far more effective use of its ideological bedmates than Labour ever did with the Alliance, or the Greens. Rodney Hide is not even in Cabinet. Fewer than four per ... More >>
