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Gordon Campbell - Latest News [Page 16]
On The “GST Off Fruit And Vegetables” Saga
Monday, 14 August 2023, 12:04 pm | Gordon Campbell
To be clear.... Any package that offers people relief on the cost of healthy food (plus a boost to Working For Families entitlements) is welcome, and better than nothing. If enacted, Labour’s move would also create a precedent for expanding the exemption ... More >>
On Gender Posturing And Mis-using PPPs In Public Health
Friday, 11 August 2023, 11:15 am | Gordon Campbell
What is it with right wing politicians getting standing ovations for doing the bare minimum? As in… Florida governor and presidential hopeful Ron De Santis being acclaimed for picking the kids up from school while his wife was receiving chemo treatment ... More >>
On The BlackRock Deal And Banning Cellphones
Wednesday, 9 August 2023, 11:12 am | Gordon Campbell
If a National/ACT government had negotiated the renewables deal with the giant investment firm BlackRock, it is safe to assume that we would be never hearing the end of it. Only National and Act, we would be being told, would have had the business nous and ... More >>
On Winston Peters’ Troubled Tango With The ACT Party
Monday, 7 August 2023, 12:53 pm | Gordon Campbell
In line with its ideological mission to destroy any and all of the creative partnerships between the state, business, science and public health, the ACT Party yesterday announced its plans to gut MBIE of its staff, institutional knowledge and core programmes, ... More >>
On What China’s Current Economic Woes Signal For Us
Thursday, 3 August 2023, 11:17 am | Gordon Campbell
For 99% of the time, our worries about China revolve around the military and diplomatic threat that Beijing allegedly poses to New Zealand and to other nations in the Pacific. Stoking those fears is very much in the business interests of the military-industrial ... More >>
On National’s 20th Century Transport Policy, And Labours’ Woes
Tuesday, 1 August 2023, 12:41 pm | Gordon Campbell
In justifying its multi-squillion dollar, ten years in the making, four lane highway linking Whangarei to Tauranga, the National Party did what it always does when climate change gets in the way of business as usual: It waves its hands around and says science ... More >>
On ACT's Links To Big Pharma
Friday, 28 July 2023, 11:13 am | Gordon Campbell
Economists are weird. People are having trouble feeding their families. Yet the obvious solution – reduce the tax burden on their food – is treated as a crime against theory, and a form of tax relief that only wealthy people and landlords deserve. ... More >>
On The Lessons From Spain’s Election
Wednesday, 26 July 2023, 11:01 am | Gordon Campbell
Spain held an election last Sunday… And stop me if any of this doesn’t sound familiar. The two right wing parties were expected to win a relatively victory after a year of setbacks for the ruling centre-left government. The large, traditional ... More >>
On Talking Tough About Law And Order
Monday, 24 July 2023, 11:19 am | Gordon Campbell
Harsh sentences are being offered as a deterrent to crime, but voters are being sold a crock. For one thing… Fear of the consequences loses its sting when “normal” life is so harsh that some offenders feel they have nothing left to lose. For many, ... More >>
On Sir Roger’s Lament, And The Commonwealth Games
Thursday, 20 July 2023, 12:11 pm | Gordon Campbell
So Dr. Frankenstein is feeling upset about how his monster has turned out. To the dismay of Sir Roger Douglas, the ACT Party has become the libertarian party of the wealthy elite. Gasp. No-one saw that one coming. Douglas, 85, has reportedly penned ... More >>
On How Political Donations Favour The Centre-right
Tuesday, 18 July 2023, 12:04 pm | Gordon Campbell
Political donations are not gifts. They’re an investment. Lest the recipients forget the gesture, one of the purposes of political lobbying is to remind everyone in the room that they have mutual interests in common. In short, political donations ... More >>
On Dancing With NATO On Defence
Wednesday, 12 July 2023, 1:44 pm | Gordon Campbell
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has been keeping some serious company of late. He’s been signing a free trade deal with the EU, shooting off to Stockholm to thank Sweden for its help in getting the EU trade deal across the line, popping into the NATO ... More >>
On National’s Need For Winston Peters
Monday, 10 July 2023, 11:58 am | Gordon Campbell
As a spectacle, politics can be pretty boring. MMP politics isn’t a cage fight, or even (ultimately) a struggle between individual parties. Moreover… Under MMP, not even megatons of public exposure to an unattractive party leader can turn a pumpkin ... More >>
On Relying On Israeli News Narratives About Palestine
Thursday, 6 July 2023, 12:09 pm | Gordon Campbell
So far, the coverage of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) assault on the Jenin refugee camp has followed a familiar pattern. Images of explosions and rising plumes of smoke have been punctuated by footage of anguished/angry Palestinian civilians at funerals ... More >>
On The Greens Plan To Help Renters
Monday, 3 July 2023, 11:09 am | Gordon Campbell
One of the best things about the Greens plan to cap rent increases at 3% annually is that it spreads around some of the pain of the Reserve Bank’s brutal response to inflation. To date, the Reserve Bank‘s actions in relentlessly jacking up interest ... More >>
On The Ripple Effects From The Titan Submersible Disaster
Friday, 30 June 2023, 11:58 am | Gordon Campbell
As clickbait, the saga of OceanGate’s Titan submersible belongs to the same genre of real time news countdowns as the boys trapped in the Thailand caves, the trapped miners in Peru and the 18 month old baby girl trapped down a well in Texas. Except ... More >>
On China, University Funding, Ukraine
Wednesday, 28 June 2023, 11:10 am | Gordon Campbell
Gosh. According to a tip leaked to a journalist from the Australian newspaper by an anonymous source whose identity cannot be disclosed for secret squirrel reasons, our Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta was reportedly subjected to an “epic haranguing ... More >>
On National’s Law And Ordure Policy
Monday, 26 June 2023, 11:47 am | Gordon Campbell
So here we are... Barely 75 days out from election day, and National STILL hasn’t revealed how it is going to pay for its stupendously expensive bag of presents for everyone. National is simultaneously promising to reduce the tax revenue coming into ... More >>
On ACT’s Anti-worker Crusade, And Israeli Settler Violence
Friday, 23 June 2023, 12:18 pm | Gordon Campbell
The ACT Party’s announcement yesterday that it aims to stop workers in the gig economy from being allowed to test in court whether they deserve to be treated as employees – and thus entitled to sick leave, holiday pay etc – has been the most ... More >>
Gordon Campbell On TOP, And The Bank Inquiry
Wednesday, 21 June 2023, 11:50 am | Gordon Campbell
The 5% MMP threshold soaks up a disproportionate share of the attention paid to the struggle by small parties to get into Parliament. By now, it should be obvious that winning an electorate seat is the only reliable path to political sustainability ... More >>
