Archive for August, 2015
Thursday, August 27th, 2015
Accusing the overworked and underfunded staff at Child, Youth and Family of a “dump and run culture of neglect" is the kind of luxury that a Children’s Commissioner can afford to indulge in from his own comfy perch in the bureaucracy. Newsflash: CYPS staff care about the welfare of children ...
Posted in Articles | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, August 25th, 2015
So far, the public has treated the government’s flag campaign with something between disinterest and disdain. Most New Zealanders have instinctively seen through the marketing hype involved. Basically the flag campaign is a ‘feel good’ bit of self-promotion for the government and concocted to enable Prime Minister John Key to ...
Posted in Articles | 9 Comments »
Wednesday, August 19th, 2015
For the past few months, you, me, and Rupert Murdoch have been waiting for the wheels to fall off the Trump campaign, and for some drab incarnation of business-as-usual (Jeb Bush, Scott Walker) to emerge as the real Republican standard bearer in next year’s presidential election. Hmmm. But if the ...
Posted in Articles | 1 Comment »
Monday, August 17th, 2015
At times, a protest march can feel like a futile political tactic, but at least afterwards… Trade Minister Tim Groser can always be relied on to put his foot in his mouth. The weekend’s turnout of thousands – in Auckland in wet weather - was no exception. In his comments ...
Posted in Articles | 1 Comment »
Thursday, August 13th, 2015
As China’s currency takes the down elevator towards the basement – and after two days of decline no one knows how far down it will eventually go – its hard to see any good news for New Zealand. Our main export commodity (dairy powder) has already lost 70 % of ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on China’s devaluation, and Wolf Alice
Wednesday, August 12th, 2015
Labour’s readiness to play “Gotcha” politics over the 27 incidents where refugee status were first granted and then revoked is pretty shameful. According to documents obtained by RNZ, fraud may have been involved in some of these cases. Labour wants to know why the citizenship of the people concerned was ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on Labour’s pandering to the redneck vote about refugees, and the SIS charm offensive
Monday, August 10th, 2015
Japan has made it clear it thinks New Zealand was the key major stumbling block to a successful conclusion of the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal. Alas, New Zealand proved to be the axle-breaking bump in the road that nobody saw until it was too late to slow down. An ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on Japan’s current doubts that the TPP has any future
Wednesday, August 5th, 2015
Traditionally, voters regard National as a more competent manager of the economy. It is the sole upside of crony capitalism: surely these guys must know what their mates in business want and need. These last few months though, have put that faith sorely to the test, as the government seems ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on the economic bad news, and Turkey’s fears about the Kurds
Monday, August 3rd, 2015
Even in this dark hour for the TPP, the secrecy farce continues. On RNZ this morning, Trade Minister Tim Groser said he looks forward to the day when he can take the covers off, and show New Zealand what a good deal we’ve won. Oh, good grief. What is left ...
Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on why we should still oppose investor-state dispute measures