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Gordon Campbell - Latest News [Page 39]
On Living With The Extension, And With Edward Hopper
Tuesday, 21 April 2020, 2:07 pm | Gordon Campbell
In the end, it was obvious that the lockdown had to be extended. According to epidemiologist Ayesha Verrall, our tracing systems are still struggling to reach the standard whereby several clusters could be handled at once, and in the context of only a small outbreak ... More >>
On Why We Should Extend The Lockdown
Monday, 20 April 2020, 9:58 am | Gordon Campbell
Impatience can be contagious. The kids in the back seat during the lockdown – Mike Hosking, Barry Soper, David Seymour etc - keep yelling “ Are we there yet” and saying they never wanted to come on this dumb old trip anyway. Hopefully, the ... More >>
On The Search For Covid-19 Vaccines, And Our Media Woes
Friday, 17 April 2020, 11:40 am | Gordon Campbell
The government always ran the risk that if its lockdown succeeded in saving lives, it would be open to the criticism that it cried wolf. Success = overkill. Well, this has to be one of the downsides of being an island nation, and effectively remote ... More >>
On Why We Shouldn’t Be Trying To Emulate Australia
Wednesday, 15 April 2020, 11:42 am | Gordon Campbell
On today’s Coronocast podcast on the ABC state broadcasting network in Australia, New Zealand’s policy of going out hard early with a stringent economic shutdown was being held up by medical expert Dr Norman Swan as a model that Australia should ... More >>
On The Argument Over Whether Lives Or Livelihoods Are More Important
Tuesday, 14 April 2020, 2:33 pm | Gordon Campbell
It is hardly business as usual, but this week is shaping up to be all about business and its needs, how the economy will emerge from lockdown on April 23, and what kind of challenges business will face when we do. Today, Treasury has released seven “ ... More >>
On The Changes That Covid-19 Is Causing, Plus A Spotify Playlist For Y’all
Thursday, 9 April 2020, 1:01 pm | Gordon Campbell
Will life (and the economy) ever be the same again after the Covid-19 crisis is over? Obviously not, even leaving aside the impact on people who may lose family members and friends to the virus. Amongst the small socio-economic changes – yep, ... More >>
On The Rationing Of PPE Gear, Masks And Everything Else
Wednesday, 8 April 2020, 1:11 pm | Gordon Campbell
From the outset, the perceived need to ration our scarce resources seems to have driven the response to Covid-19. Rationing still appears to be limiting the ability of nurses and other frontline workers to access and routinely wear the PPE gear they ... More >>
On The Ethics (and Some Of The Economics) Of Lifting The Lockdown
Tuesday, 7 April 2020, 11:09 am | Gordon Campbell
As New Zealand passes the half-way mark towards moving out of Level Four lockdown, the trade-offs involved in life-after-lockdown are starting to come into view. All very well for National’s finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith to claim that “The ... More >>
On The Lockdown, Masks And Aerosol Transmission
Monday, 6 April 2020, 10:48 am | Gordon Campbell
Ironically, our relative success in suppressing the exponential spread of Covid-19 is only increasing the pressure to ease back from those measures, on a regional basis at least. We seem set on course to start tentatively emerging from lockdown in about ... More >>
On Wage Cuts, And The Listener’s Demise
Friday, 3 April 2020, 10:57 am | Gordon Campbell
Various levels of across the board wage cuts – 10%? 15% ?- are being mooted for workers in some of our larger firms, in order to help the likes of Fletchers, Mediaworks etc survive the Covid-19 crisis. It is extraordinary that unions should be having ... More >>
On The Changes Hitting The Economy, Work, And The Benefit System
Thursday, 2 April 2020, 11:50 am | Gordon Campbell
The economy may be falling like a rock but it hasn’t hit the bottom of the well yet, here or anywhere else. Time is so stretched – early March feels like a distant country – that planning rationally for what the economy might look like in two, ... More >>
On Buying Ventilators, And Expanding The Testing For Covid-19
Wednesday, 1 April 2020, 11:12 am | Gordon Campbell
Before getting into recent developments….. who knew that Covid-19 was so powerful it could make NZ parliamentarians act like adults, and make them pose intelligent questions to officials and Cabinet Ministers about issues of public interest? Wowzah. ... More >>
On Our (Fatal?) Shortage Of Ventilators
Monday, 30 March 2020, 12:24 pm | Gordon Campbell
With a few honourable exceptions there has been a striking lack of focus on the (insufficient) number of ventilators in our intensive care units – and an almost complete absence of overt urgency about acquiring and/or building more of them. Ventilators ... More >>
On What Leadership ( And The Lack Of It) Looks Like
Friday, 27 March 2020, 12:59 pm | Gordon Campbell
L eadership is an intangible quality, but most New Zealanders will be thanking their lucky stars for what’s being provided by PM Jacinda Ardern and Ministry of Health Director-General Ashley Bloomfield. On a daily basis, both have been clear and decisive ... More >>
Six Short Takes About The Lockdown
Thursday, 26 March 2020, 12:52 pm | Gordon Campbell
To begin with, a correction : in yesterday’s column I said that there were 650,000 New Zealanders in Australia that do not qualify for income support if and when they lose their jobs as a result of Covid-19. This was factually wrong. In fact, about ... More >>
On Australia’s Callousness, And Grandparents As Parents Amid Covid-19
Wednesday, 25 March 2020, 11:19 am | Gordon Campbell
Reportedly, there are some 650,000 New Zealanders living in Australia. Many will lose their jobs in the economic crash caused by Covid-19, and none of them will be eligible for income support from the Australian government, despite having lived ... More >>
On How Long Lockdowns Need To Last, And The Ventilator Shortages
Tuesday, 24 March 2020, 1:28 pm | Gordon Campbell
The lockdown announced yesterday by PM Jacinda Ardern is consistent with the advice from the Imperial College Covid-19 team in London, whose blueprint the NZ government has been following (a) in order to slow down the spread of the disease and (b) to More >>
On Going To Level Four (and Scrapping The Olympics) Right Now
Monday, 23 March 2020, 10:43 am | Gordon Campbell
Sure, there’s a logic to having four stages of response to Covid-19, flexible enough to vary region by region. The idea being…. The stepped response will slow down the spread of the virus, minimise social panic and avoid the health system being ... More >>
On The Sudden Clamour For Government Bailouts
Thursday, 19 March 2020, 11:35 am | Gordon Campbell
So many U-turns, in such a short period of time. Pity poor old Fox News, which had been dutifully pushing the Trumpian line that the coronavirus is an overblown media hoax that will blow away with the warm winds of Spring – only to have to pivot ... More >>
On The Economic Stimulus Package
Wednesday, 18 March 2020, 10:11 am | Gordon Campbell
Obviously, yesterday’s massive $12.1 billion economic stimulus package (4% of GDP !) will not totally insulate people from the economic hardship caused by the coronavirus, but it will soften the impact. More will be needed, before the May Budget. ... More >>
