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Gordon Campbell - Latest News [Page 36]
On The Clark Exit, Convention Centres, And The Killing Of Hachalu Hundessa
Friday, 3 July 2020, 11:30 am | Gordon Campbell
Goodbye, David Clark. In the end, the outgoing Health Minister decided that in the midst of a pandemic the best thing he could do for New Zealand would be to no longer be there – given that being there had involved hiving off on his mountain bike ... More >>
On Why Attack Isn’t Our Best Means Of Cyber-Defence
Wednesday, 1 July 2020, 10:15 am | Gordon Campbell
This morning’s news that the SIS engaged in attacks on the Indian High Commission and Embassy of Iran during the late 1980s/early 1990s should come as no surprise. Down the years, there’s been an Orwellian tendency to depict the role of our spy ... More >>
On The Opaque Workings Of The Royal Commission Into The Mosque Shootings
Monday, 29 June 2020, 11:34 am | Gordon Campbell
As we heard on RNZ this morning, the Moslem community is looking to the Royal Commission of Inquiry Into The Attacks on Christchurch Mosques for answers about the motives of the shooter. And also about and the adequacy of the security services and Police ... More >>
On The Media Collusion With National’s Attack Lines
Friday, 26 June 2020, 10:59 am | Gordon Campbell
For most of the past week, any consumer of this country’s management of Covid-19 would think New Zealand was actually Brazil, or Texas. The media language has been full of claims of “botches” at the border, and laxness and inexcusable errors ... More >>
On Negating Covid-19 Success, And K-pop’s Links With Black Activism
Wednesday, 24 June 2020, 11:20 am | Gordon Campbell
National MP Michael Woodhouse took his party’s credibility to a new low this morning via his inability to prove his claim that a homeless man had managed to freeload for 14 days inside a quarantine hotel in Auckland. Perusal of the CCTV footage has ... More >>
On Managing Covid-19 Better Than The Australians, And The Ellis Case
Monday, 22 June 2020, 2:49 pm | Gordon Campbell
If anything the Covid-19 outbreaks occurring this week in and around Melbourne are a timely reminder of the bullet we dodged by not having a National government in power here. Ever since the onset of the pandemic, National has urged the Ardern government ... More >>
On Why Trump Is Unlikely To Get Re-elected
Friday, 19 June 2020, 11:26 am | Gordon Campbell
So… Is the world likely to have to endure a second term of Donald Trump’s proto-fascist presidency? Probably not, at this point. The opinion polls – both nationally and in some of the states most likely to deliver the Electoral College outcome – are More >>
On The Perils Of Making Damage Control Your Top Priority
Thursday, 18 June 2020, 11:07 am | Gordon Campbell
Surely, the only thing worse than making a serious mistake is to then try and minimise its implications – especially when the efforts at damage control seem highly likely to get shot to pieces. Yet somewhat incredibly, Health Ministry director-general ... More >>
On Labour’s List, And Our Victorian Monuments
Tuesday, 16 June 2020, 10:10 am | Gordon Campbell
We’re currently in the “phoney war” stage of the 2020 election campaign, before the contest begins in earnest. Yesterday’s release of Labour’s party list rankings has already been picked over – and yes, it is extremely odd that we live in a world More >>
On Allowing The Police To Use “Sponge” Bullets
Thursday, 11 June 2020, 2:04 pm | Gordon Campbell
Terminology can be SO important. Back when “non-lethal” bullets were first invented and became part of the weapons array available to US Police, they were called “ rubber bullets” rather than say, “plastic bullets” because “plastic” sounded ... More >>
On Why Women With Opinions Can Be SO Annoying
Wednesday, 10 June 2020, 11:38 am | Gordon Campbell
Good grief. Well, we shouldn’t be all that surprised at National MP Paul Goldsmith and his “ stick to your knitting” comment yesterday. Sexism and the National Party go together like love and marriage and the horse and carriage era to which ... More >>
On Level One, And Living With Predatory Markets
Tuesday, 9 June 2020, 9:59 am | Gordon Campbell
Welcome to Level One, earthlings. This is the new normality while the virus still roams beyond the border walls. Those borders will remain closed and guarded by quarantine for any entrants from outside, and while the Transtasman bubble remains an idea that ... More >>
On The Politics Of Using The Word “Fascist”
Thursday, 4 June 2020, 11:57 am | Gordon Campbell
“Fascist” is one of those labels with the ability to capsize any debate. Call your opponents “fascists” – or “agitators” or “terrorists” or “scum” and you’ve taken the option of mutual respect and compromise off the table. Interesting ... More >>
Gordon Campbell On The George Floyd Protests
Tuesday, 2 June 2020, 2:51 pm | Gordon Campbell
Poverty, discrimination and repeated acts of police brutality all help to explain the rage being expressed on the streets of American cities right now after the death of George Floyd but there is a more immediate cause as well : Decades of research ... More >>
On The Twitter Wars, And The Muller Muddles
Friday, 29 May 2020, 12:27 pm | Gordon Campbell
Whatever the failings of our own politicians, spare a kind thought for the majority of Americans who did not vote for Donald Trump. Sure, it was depressing this week to watch Todd Muller clinging for dear life to his talking points on Q&A, ... More >>
On Why Welfare Reform Has No Champions In Parliament
Wednesday, 27 May 2020, 11:36 am | Gordon Campbell
Ever since Victorian times, the unemployed have been a problem for those more fortunate, wealthy and powerful. Down the ages, society has been torn between providing for them as victims of misfortune, or dealing to them as the shiftless agents of their ... More >>
On Not Buying What Todd Muller Is Selling
Monday, 25 May 2020, 2:07 pm | Gordon Campbell
Chloe Swarbrick is number three in the Greens Parry list released this morning. Todd Muller has released his new party line-up today, which will excite everyone who still wants to know what Gerry Brownlee and Judith Collins will be up to in future. ... More >>
On National’s Day Of Reckoning
Thursday, 21 May 2020, 9:43 am | Gordon Campbell
Congratulations. You are one of the 55 members of the National caucus being called together tomorrow to choose who will lead you to either (a) catastrophic or (b) honourable defeat on September 19, thereby saving some (but not all) of the jobs currently on ... More >>
On The (lack Of) Alternatives To Simon Bridges
Wednesday, 20 May 2020, 11:09 am | Gordon Campbell
Spin the roulette wheel. The suggestion that tomorrow’s headline poll numbers will decide the fate of Simon Bridges is a fairly extreme example of poll-driven politics. Still, we are where we are. On past evidence, the Colmar Brunton poll is ... More >>
On The Government’s Attempts At Poaching The Soft Centre-right Vote
Monday, 18 May 2020, 10:37 am | Gordon Campbell
More than once in the past few days Finance Minister Grant Robertson has been at pains to thank both his predecessors - Michael Cullen and Bill English - for the way they paid down government debt. As a result of the Cullen/English double act, ... More >>
