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Dec 11, 2024 | 
wellington.scoop.co.nz | Gordon Campbell
by Gordon CampbellI wouldn’t have picked Nicola Willis to be a big AC/DC fan, but “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” must have been the theme song for her decision to cancel the iRex rail ferries project. As we learned today, she and Winston Peters, the newly-anointed Minister of Rail, have a plan to replace the iRex ferries that were due to arrive in 2026.
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Nov 19, 2024 | 
wellington.scoop.co.nz | Gordon Campbell
by Gordon CampbellThe euphoria from yesterday’s hikoi may be transitory, but is no less valuable for that. It is pretty rare for the left to feel itself to be in the overwhelming majority, and speaking as the voice of the people. Lest that momentum be lost, the organisers will no doubt be mobilising the contacts they made yesterday, to carry the ongoing fight against this Bill to all parts of the country.
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Oct 23, 2024 | 
wellington.scoop.co.nz | Gordon Campbell
by Gordon CampbellNational has never forgiven Wellington – or its public servants – for voting for Labour and the Greens. (Red-blooded Kiwis work in the private sector.) No surprise then to find a right-wing central government being willing to kick the Capital when it’s down. (See “Wellington is dying and we don’t know how to turn it around” – John Key, 2013.
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Sep 30, 2024 | 
wellington.scoop.co.nz | Gordon Campbell
by Gordon CampbellIt seems that MPs may be ten times more likely than the rest of us to be landlords, and own rental or investment properties. Earlier this year, Renters United calculated that nearly one third (28%) of parliamentarians own rental or investment properties, compared to an estimated 2.8% of the adult population.
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Sep 12, 2024 | 
wellington.scoop.co.nz | Gordon Campbell
by Gordon CampbellThis past week has seen Wellington’s ruling coalition of chaos in fully dysfunctional mode. In the last six days, the ACT Party and New Zealand First have had two strikingly different responses to two strikingly similar problems in two key sectors of the economy: supermarkets and energy companies.
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Sep 5, 2024 | 
wellington.scoop.co.nz | Gordon Campbell
by Gordon CampbellAround the halls of Parliament in Wellington, displays of bi-partisan agreement are reserved for wars, sporting triumphs or the deaths of monarchs. That’s why the coalition government’s sudden enthusiasm for a bi-partisan approach to building national infrastructure has seemed less than genuine. After all, if they believe so much in continuity beyond the electoral cycle for projects of national significance, why did they cancel the ferries contract?
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Jul 1, 2024 | 
wellington.scoop.co.nz | Gordon Campbell
by Gordon CampbellSpring will soon be bringing cricket alive again in Wellington and to the Basin Reserve, the nation’s traditional home of cricket. Talking of which … the Black Caps are due to play a test match against Afghanistan between September 9-13, in India. So far, the biggest news story about this fixture has been the exclusion of Rashid Khan, Afghanistan’s superstar and captain, from the 20 players in the Afghan squad. There is a bigger story though.
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May 21, 2024 | 
scoop.co.nz | Gordon Campbell
The legal world was abuzz. The diplomatic channels ofvarious countries raged and fizzed. It had been rumouredthat Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, alongwith his cabinet colleagues, had been bracing themselves fora stinging intervention from the International CriminalCourt, a body they give no credence or respectto.
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May 21, 2024 | 
scoop.co.nz | Gordon Campbell
Thescathing “independent” review of Kāinga Ora barely hitthe table before the coalition government had acted on it. The entire Kāinga Ora board will be replaced, and a newchair (Simon Moutter) has been announced. Hmm. No aspersionson Bill English, but the public would have had moreconfidence in this “independent” critique of KāingaOra’s expanded building programme if it had been carriedout by someone other than a former National Partyleader.
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May 21, 2024 | 
asiapacificreport.nz | Gordon Campbell
COMMENTARY: By Gordon CampbellThe split opening up in Israel’s “War Cabinet” is not just between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his long-term rival Benny Gantz. It is actually a three-way split, set in motion by Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. It was Gallant’s open criticism of Netanyahu that finally flushed Gantz out into the open.
