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Gordon Campbell - Latest News [Page 88]
Gordon Campbell on inquiry into the Dotcom security breaches
Thursday, 27 September 2012, 10:36 am | Gordon Campbell
Who watches the watchers? Putting in place effective oversight mechanisms for intelligence agencies is a chronic problem in Western democracies. Given the recent revelations of the illegal surveillance of Kim Dotcom and his associates by the GCSB (with the ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on Dotcom, spies and plausible deniability
Tuesday, 25 September 2012, 10:22 am | Gordon Campbell
Well, John Key promised us a different style of government than what we’d had from Helen Clark. No more of that being on top of every detail in every portfolio. Do that, and people not only get sick to death of you (no one likes a know-all) but ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on Paula Bennett’s yawning credibility gap
Monday, 24 September 2012, 10:25 am | Gordon Campbell
B y the week, the “welfare reforms” of Social Development Minister Paula Bennett are starting to look more like the Cave Creek viewing platform than a properly designed and well built piece of social engineering. First, the arbitrary nature of the welfare ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on Leon Panetta and gunboat access diplomacy
Friday, 21 September 2012, 10:08 am | Gordon Campbell
See if you can guess the name of the country that the Stratfor think tank is talking about here. Hint: it is a country that has had a long running dispute about access to its ports by US warships, but is in discussions with US Defence Secretary Leon ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on the relevance to Labour of Mitt Romney
Wednesday, 19 September 2012, 10:32 am | Gordon Campbell
One shouldn’t take pleasure in the misfortune of others, but one can always make an exception for Mitt Romney. Romney is now trying to defend his latest disastrous utterances as an accurate – but inelegant – critique of dependency on the government, ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on John Banks, and Japanese politicking
Tuesday, 18 September 2012, 9:57 am | Gordon Campbell
Don’t ask, don’t tell. The “gays in the military” strategy that John Key has chosen to adopt with respect to the John Banks Affair is daily calling for more and more implausible declarations of prophylactic ignorance by the Prime Minister. More >>
Gordon Campbell on journalism, and John Armstrong
Monday, 17 September 2012, 10:16 am | Gordon Campbell
Watching a round of hair pulling and name-calling between journalists is rarely a rewarding sight, so I apologise in advance to anyone of a nervous or irritable disposition for this morning’s column. Allegedly, I have been unfair and mean to John Armstrong ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on job creation | Bennett’s welfare numbers
Thursday, 13 September 2012, 11:27 am | Gordon Campbell
When governments brag about the jobs their economic policies are creating, the public should regard the figures as being as reliable as a John Banks mayoral expenses declaration. During only the past week for instance, Finance Minister Bill English has claimed ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on welfare | Labour’s exchange rate cynicism
Wednesday, 12 September 2012, 10:18 am | Gordon Campbell
Paula Bennett’s refusal to front up on National Radio this morning and discuss her latest spasm of beneficiary policy is symptomatic of her overall performance as Minister. The Social Development Minister is happy to announce any number of ‘get ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on APEC, and its significance for TPP talks
Monday, 10 September 2012, 11:10 am | Gordon Campbell
Once upon a time, the APEC gathering of nations threatened to become a significant free trade bloc in its own right. Remember the Bogor Goals of 1994? But these days, not so much, apart from a bit of fiddling around with eco-friendly tariff levels. More >>
Gordon Campbell on lack of a jobs policy, and abortion laws
Friday, 7 September 2012, 10:41 am | Gordon Campbell
Jobs, jobs, jobs. Gosh, who would have thought that if you cut government spending and jobs in the teeth of a recession, the economy would contract further and unemployment would rise? Plainly, it’s a lot easier to un-govern and to walk away from responsibility ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on last night’s same sex marriage debate
Thursday, 30 August 2012, 10:34 am | Gordon Campbell
Once again, when Parliament went into conscience vote mode last night on a contentious issue, the quality of debate markedly improved - as MPs briefly managed to escape from their usual role of being fodder for pre-set party positions. More >>
Gordon Campbell on this week’s arm-wrestling on water rights
Tuesday, 28 August 2012, 10:09 am | Gordon Campbell
When it comes to the Waitangi Tribunal ruling on water rights, Prime Minister John Key appears to be balancing midstream on two different logs that threaten to move further apart over the next few days. While Key is being careful to say all the obligatory ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on inequality & God’s dislike of Republicans
Friday, 24 August 2012, 11:00 am | Gordon Campbell
Inequality is becoming ingrained in the culture. One of the more interesting ads on television is the long running one where a trio of All Blacks is greeted effusively in a hotel foyer by a prize-winning fan. More >>
Gordon Campbell on how lobbying works
Thursday, 23 August 2012, 11:57 am | Gordon Campbell
Remember when the Law Commission was worried that young women were the prime targets of alcohol industry RTD alcopop advertising and promotion? Remember when the media was full of shocked (shocked!!!) stories about excessive alcohol consumption by young ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on what comes next in Afghanistan
Tuesday, 21 August 2012, 10:34 am | Gordon Campbell
Under its current operating rules, the New Zealand forces in Bamiyan have already been given authority by Cabinet to cross over into neighbouring regions such as Baghlan - the province from which the attackers responsible for the recent deaths among New ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on latest New Zealand deaths in Afghanistan
Monday, 20 August 2012, 9:46 am | Gordon Campbell
The killing of three more New Zealand members of our Provincial Reconstruction Team by a roadside bomb in northern Bamiyan would seem to indicate that (a) their vehicles are not armoured adequately to protect them against the level of IEDs now being deployed ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on the Julian Assange extradition battle
Friday, 17 August 2012, 12:01 pm | Gordon Campbell
As in so many international disputes, the key to the resolution of the Julian Assange asylum case is the United States. If the White House, via US Attorney-General Eric Holder, would issue a diplomatic assurance that the US would not be seeking the extradition ... More >>
Gordon Campbell on Paula Bennett & privacy, and Big Tobacco
Thursday, 16 August 2012, 11:24 am | Gordon Campbell
You don’t really have to be a theologian to know that if you’re truly sorry for doing something, repentance includes a commitment not to do it again. Social Development Minister Paula Bennett clearly has a problem with the second part. More >>
Gordon Campbell on the MMP review, and Paul Ryan for Veep
Tuesday, 14 August 2012, 10:58 am | Gordon Campbell
As expected, the MMP review proposal paper has come up with a trade-off between the two main voting thresholds. It suggests scrapping the one electorate seat provision that enables small parties to bring others into Parliament in line with their vote ... More >>
