Gordon Campbell's blog updates are now published at Werewolf.co.nz.

Gordon Campbell on politicising the war on drugs in sport

First published on Werewolf

Ironically, the media coverage of the Olympics has been a sterling example of the rabid nationalism that the Olympics were supposed to transcend. So far, its been all about us and our medals and/or our ninth or 27th or 39th place effort. Still, even nationalism can sometimes be fun, as these Irish brothers and their ‘podium pants’ have proved.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t been much fun at all to see how “war on drugs in sport” has become a proxy version of the Cold War, fixated on Russia. This weekend’s banning of the Russian long jumper Darya Klishina took that fixation to fresh extremes. Initially, Klishina was the only member of Russia’s original 68 strong track and field team cleared to compete in Rio. That’s because she has been training for three years in the US, and has passed every drugs test throughout her career – in Russia, at international meets, and within the United States, where she now resides. Read the rest of this entry »

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Gordon Campbell on electricity pricing and Aleppo

First published on Werewolf

If the Reserve Bank has seemed this week like a ghost of the 1990s trying to re-discover its interest rate mojo, the Electricity Authority seems to be hellbent on a 1980s revival. You know, the days when the New Wave Monetary Romantics like Roger Douglas and Richard Prebble would force their loony ideas on the rest of us, regardless of the social consequences – just because it looked like a more “efficient” way of doing things. Everyone, back then, was inhaling the amyl nitrate of free market economics. It was so exciting.

Similarly, the Electricity Authority has decided that its not a good idea in a small country like New Zealand, for all of us to contribute a small but equal amount to the cost of the national grid, for the general good. No, no… far more ‘efficient’ to break these costs down into regional formulas in terms of proximity to the power sources and transmission lines. That way, you will always create winners (who surely deserve to be rewarded by the gods of the market) and losers, who just as surely deserve to be cast into the outer darkness. Literally, in this case. Read the rest of this entry »

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Gordon Campbell on the Impotence of the Reserve Bank

First published on Werewolf

If anyone is keen on us having a 90s revival – ASAP – it would have to be Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler. Back in the 1990s, central bankers were like kings. They were Emperors of influence. When the likes of Don Brash clicked their fingers and pushed up interest rates – always up, always tightening – our exporters trembled, and would beg for mercy.

Now however, central bankers seem to be entirely impotent. The ol’ time religion of austerity has failed us all. Around the world, it is now seen to be central governments with their neo- Keynesian economic policies and their quantitative easing and their massive infrastructural spending projects who have to try and restore some life to the economy, and thereby undo the damage done by central bankers of yore. Read the rest of this entry »

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Gordon Campbell on our China cringe

First published on Werewolf

Surprise. So we have a new round of revelations about the Key government’s handling of the threats to our exports by China – if we should proceed to investigate the reports of them dumping their excess steel in this country. Apparently, we’ve been in formal discussions with the Chinese on this issue since May.

Walking that back, you’ll recall that when the story first broke the response from Todd McClay – the sock puppet otherwise known as the New Zealand Minister of Trade – was to call the media reports ‘extremely hypothetical’. Then McClay suddenly remembered that actually he’d been briefed by MFAT about the Chinese threats the previous week. He’d not only forgotten all about being briefed on these threats – even after he read about them again in the newspaper – but had also (allegedly) neglected to inform Prime Minister John Key, whose façade of plausible deniability (“I know nothing about this”) must of course, be maintained by his Cabinet colleagues at all times. Read the rest of this entry »

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Gordon Campbell on rugby’s sense of entitlement

First published on Werewolf

Supposedly, there’s a tradition in this country where strippers get hired for ‘stag dos’ and “hen nights.” Chippendale blokes for the ladies, a sexy garter or two for the guys. It is usually crystal clear what the format is: a bit of saucy flouncing and teasing, and some good natured ribald comment, often at the expense of the host of the evening. On very few occasions do the people involved take it as an ‘anything goes’ invitation to commit a sexual assault on the stripper.

The fact that at least some members of the Chiefs rugby team did think they had a licence to carry out inappropriate sexual touching and propositioning – and then to short change stripper Scarlett’s agreed money when she didn’t come across with extra services – says quite a lot about the sense of entitlement attached to rugby’s top practitioners in New Zealand. Read the rest of this entry »

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Gordon Campbell on the Bain compensation case

First published on Werewolf

The only good news about the Bain compensation fiasco is that it is finally over. Allegedly, Bain failed to meet the threshold of innocence, but if so, the Key government failed to meet the threshold of competence on this issue. In the end, Bain got zero compensation from the state for his years of wrongful imprisonment, but scored nearly a million dollars in compensation for the delay in determining his ineligibility for compensation. Wow. That’s like the old Groucho Marx gag about not wanting to be a member of any club that would have him as a member. Read the rest of this entry »

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Gordon Campbell on NZ homecare workers and US voting rights

a href=”http://werewolf.co.nz/2016/08/gordon-campbell-on-nz-homecare-workers-and-us-voting-rights/”>First published on Werewolf

Hopefully, the unions will not lie down and meekly accept yesterday’s Court of Appeal ruling on the employment status of support worker Janet Lowe. As many as 35,000 home care workers stand to be affected by yesterday’s ruling – in which the appellate court declared that these workers (who provide relief in homes to family members looking after sick or aged relatives) are not technically ‘employees” and thus do not qualify for the minimum wage of $14.25. As a result, the remuneration for people doing this essential and often unpleasant work will revert to being regarded as a mere “ subsidy”. Typically, this means that they can legally end up being paid only $75 for a 24 hour shift, or about $3 an hour. Read the rest of this entry »

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Gordon Campbell on why the opinion polls for Key and Trump defy gravity

What is going on? Donald Trump got confirmed as the Republican presidential candidate at a bizarrely chaotic political convention… and promptly received an upwards bump in the polls to where he’s now rating ahead of Hillary Clinton, for only the second time this year. Likewise, John Key’s government had quite a bad month – yet in the latest Roy Morgan poll, National has been rewarded with its biggest lead over Labour in over a year.

Go figure. The current gap between the commentariat and public opinion is downright embarrassing. Read the rest of this entry »

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Gordon Campbell on Todd McClay’s faulty memory

Column – Gordon Campbell

S o Trade Minister Todd McClay is unavailable for comment because – reportedly – he has gone overseas on a private trip. (Siberia? Outer Mongolia?) Any skepticism on this point reflects the credibility problem that McClay is going to face in future … Read the rest of this entry »

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Gordon Campbell on the IOC’s treatment of Russian sport

Column – Gordon Campbell

T he International Olympic Committee has made the right decision by leaving it to individual sports federations to decide whether particular Russian athletes will be eligible for Rio. Collective punishment was bad enough when applied to all Russian … Read the rest of this entry »

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