Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
Gordon Campbell - Latest News [Page 8]
On Chaotic Coalitions, Drinking Water And Useless Debates
Thursday, 21 September 2023, 12:00 pm | Gordon Campbell
This week’s ONE News-Verian poll had the National/ACT coalition teetering on the edge of being able to govern alone while - just as precariously – having its legislative agenda vulnerable to a potential veto by Winston Peters in the House. So close, but ... More >>
On National’s (Lack Of) Plans For El Nino
Tuesday, 19 September 2023, 10:27 am | Gordon Campbell
Debate time: In contrast to most debates, political debates aren’t simply about winning on points of logic, but are also about looking likeable on television – which is why good political debaters often have to pull their punches on TV, lest ... More >>
On The Centre-right’s Credibility Problems
Thursday, 14 September 2023, 12:21 pm | Gordon Campbell
Supposedly, people get the governments they deserve, but what on earth did we do in our past lives to deserve an Opposition as shambolic as the one on offer this election, on the centre-right? Surely these days, no-one in their right mind would ... More >>
On The Fictions About Reckless Government Spending
Wednesday, 13 September 2023, 12:23 pm | Gordon Campbell
Yesterday, the Treasury's pre-election portrait was significantly out of whack with National’s repeated claims of rampant government mis-management of the economy. Instead, it seems that the recession has been averted, inflation is falling, unemployment ... More >>
On Seymour Acting Up, And Labour’s Lost Cause
Tuesday, 12 September 2023, 11:18 am | Gordon Campbell
To use a musical analogy, ACT Party leader David Seymour is to centre-right parties what Lindsay Buckingham was to Fleetwood Mac – a talented guy, insufferable, and born to be fired from the band. Clearly, the man from Epson believes that hey, he ... More >>
On Climate Discounts, And Corporates As Children
Friday, 8 September 2023, 11:16 am | Gordon Campbell
Back when kids weren’t being taken to and from school in two tonne trucks, almost everyone was in climate change denial. Now, even the ACT Party pays it lip service. Yet given a chance to backslide, the centre-right will take it. Prime example: After ... More >>
On The Foreign Buyers Tax, And Attack Ads
Tuesday, 5 September 2023, 12:30 pm | Gordon Campbell
It has now been six days since National unveiled its tax plan – eons ago in the 24/7 news cycle – but the credibility problem with it just won’t go away. Tax cuts are never a free lunch. The revenue for them has to come from somewhere. It ... More >>
On National’s Tax Cuts
Thursday, 31 August 2023, 11:47 am | Gordon Campbell
Since tax cuts are never a free lunch, collecting the revenue to pay for them was always going to be the credibility test of National’s tax cuts package. For that reason, most people would have assumed Inland Revenue would be included alongside ... More >>
On Using Contractors As An Election Bogey
Tuesday, 29 August 2023, 11:58 am | Gordon Campbell
The demonising of consultants and contractors in the public service assumes that their functions can readily be added to the work burdens of the existing permanent public sector staff without there being any cuts to the range or the quality of social ... More >>
Gordon Campbell On Pharmaceutical Access, And FIFA Women’s Football Economics
Thursday, 24 August 2023, 10:50 am | Gordon Campbell
Who knew that prescription fees would become such a litmus test of political morality? Earlier this year, Labour scrapped prescription fees, in order to make medicine more affordable to people struggling to stay healthy during a cost of living crisis. At ... More >>
Gordon Campbell On The FIFA Women’s Football, And Teaching Kids About Finance
Monday, 21 August 2023, 3:59 pm | Gordon Campbell
Apparently, Labour and National are agreed on the desirability of teaching financial literacy to kids in the classroom. While it's hard to argue on principle against students learning more about the financial system, the idea that this can be separated ... More >>
On Why China Isn’t A Real Military Threat
Friday, 18 August 2023, 10:21 am | Gordon Campbell
Not that anyone would know it, but there has been quite a massive spendup on Defence since 2017 by the Labour government. The big ticket items have included roughly $3 billion to buy, equip, house and operate the four new Posiedon anti-submarine planes, ... More >>
On The Elitism Framing The Election Discourse
Wednesday, 16 August 2023, 11:22 am | Gordon Campbell
So… Almost all the tax experts rounded up by the mainstream media have damned the proposal to remove GST from healthy food. Some have called it “stupid” or “populist” – which is a bad word used to condemn anything that is at odds with ... More >>
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 >>
