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Political Culture And Close Elections
Thursday, 21 December 2023, 4:31 pm | Keith Rankin
When countries' national elections are closely fought, it means that the median voters critically determine the parliamentary or congressional outcome. But, though depending to a considerable extent on the prevailing political culture, the centre-of-gravity More >>
On Nicola Willis’ Impersonation Of A Finance Minister
Thursday, 21 December 2023, 11:05 am | Gordon Campbell
“ I don’t make merry myself at Christmas, and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support [the poorhouses].... They cost enough, and those who are badly off must go to them.” – Ebenezer Scrooge, in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas ... More >>
The Shipping News: Lyttelton Versus Picton, And Other Stories
Tuesday, 19 December 2023, 4:36 pm | Keith Rankin
Last week the new government effectively cancelled the plans of Kiwi Rail – in the form of 'The Interislander' – derailing its intended Picton rail and road expansion. The plans were judged to be too costly; in particular, the rate of cost escalation ... More >>
Cardinal Crimes: Absolute Rule And Fleecing The Holy See
Monday, 18 December 2023, 3:38 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Like a bank with branches everywhere, the Catholic Church will go after its own when circumstances permit, wherever they are. In other instances, it will take the opposite tack, shielding the detractors or deviants from local scrutiny, and concealing ... More >>
On The Government’s Politics Of Nostalgia
Monday, 18 December 2023, 11:46 am | Gordon Campbell
There’s a thin line between “conservative” and “reactionary.” The former strive to retain the best of current practice, while the latter want to pull everything down and revel in memories that have been marinated in nostalgia. Clearly, we’re ... More >>
Wealth Accumulation – ‘Big Sugar’ And Little Barbados: A Lesson In Struggle And Consciousness
Sunday, 17 December 2023, 5:41 pm | Ian Powell
If New Zealanders undertook four basic public health measures they would not only live longer, they would significantly reduce the pressure on their badly politically driven overstretched health system. Three of these measures involve doing moderate ... More >>
False Transitions and Global Stocktakes: The Failure of COP28
Sunday, 17 December 2023, 3:26 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The time has come to treat the sequence of UN Climate Change Conferences, the latest concluding in Dubai, as a series of the failed and the abysmally rotten. It shows how a worthless activity, caked (oiled?) with appropriately chosen words, can actually ... More >>
Flirting With Nuclear Energy Down Under
Friday, 15 December 2023, 3:09 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It was a policy that was bound to send a shiver through the policymaking community. The issue of nuclear energy in Australia has always been a contentious one. Currently, the country hosts a modest nuclear industry, centred on the Australian Nuclear Science ... More >>
On The Ferry Follies Of Nicola Willis
Friday, 15 December 2023, 10:59 am | Gordon Campbell
Cook Strait can be one of the roughest stretches of water in the world. Thanks to Finance Minister Nicola Willis, New Zealand is now going to have to rely for the next decade or more on a couple of car ferries leased or purchased on the second ... More >>
Te Pūkenga, Universities, And Unitec
Friday, 15 December 2023, 10:05 am | Keith Rankin
Tertiary education is in crisis in Aotearoa New Zealand. Vocational education, the domain of the Polytechnic 'Institutes of Technology'; and Science and Humanities' education, the traditional domain of the Universities. 2023 was an election year, ... More >>
‘Let It Be A Tale’: On Refaat Alareer And The Martyrdom Of The Gaza Intellectual
Thursday, 14 December 2023, 2:50 pm | Ramzy Baroud
What is taking place in Gaza is meant for the history books: an epic tale of a small nation under a long, brutal siege for many years, facing one of the greatest military powers in the world. And yet, it refuses to be defeated. Not even the ... More >>
Commerce Commission opens fibre deregulation debate
Thursday, 14 December 2023, 12:06 pm | Digitl
Download Weekly newsletter December 8 2023: Commerce Commission opens fibre deregulation debate, 2023 Telecommunications Development Levy charges, Spark hits million connection milestone with smart meter IoT. More >>
Chorus Of The Hebrew Slaves In Gaza
Thursday, 14 December 2023, 9:26 am | Eugene Doyle
I was wandering up the Tip Track in Owhiro Bay today listening to a playlist of favourites. On came “Va, Pensiero” by Giuseppe Verdi - The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves – from Nabucco . It stopped me in my tracks. I have heard the piece innumerable ... More >>
A Flawed And Dangerous Presence: US Troops In Syria
Wednesday, 13 December 2023, 11:48 am | Binoy Kampmark
Despite a focus on boxing China in the Indo-Pacific, US involvement in the Middle East continues to be widespread and problematic. While Israel is given its regular steroid diet of murderous arms, US military personnel find themselves scattered throughout ... More >>
When Smoke Gets In Your Eyes The Outcome Is Perversity
Tuesday, 12 December 2023, 8:47 pm | Ian Powell
In 1959 The Platters , an early rock-and-roll era group, released the song Smoke gets in your eyes (first sung in a 1933 Broadway show: ‘Smoke gets in your eyes’ . The song is a sweetly romantic metaphoric song about falling in love and then breaking-up. ... More >>
Censoring Israeli Violence: Western Media Outlets Capitulate
Tuesday, 12 December 2023, 12:57 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The cathedral of censorship is a vast, airy one. In its embrace, texts are abridged, images removed, ideas scrubbed. Historical inconveniences are filed and rendered inaccessible. The only sermons tolerated will be those satisfying and serving the ... More >>
On How The State Aims To Dictate What The Unemployed Are Allowed To Buy
Tuesday, 12 December 2023, 11:43 am | Gordon Campbell
At first glance, ACT deputy leader Brooke Van Velden might seem an odd choice to oversee workplace relations. However, if the aim is to atomise workplace relations and reduce them to the level of individual firms and individual workers – just ... More >>
Churchill’s Dog And Why I Will Be Rallying For Gaza
Monday, 11 December 2023, 9:57 am | Eugene Doyle
This Tuesday at midday, people of conscience will rally at Parliament in Wellington to call for an enduring ceasefire in Gaza. Please let people know. Everything you need to know about Gaza can be encapsulated in one seldom-daylighted quote by Winston ... More >>
Accidents Of Eccentricity: Israel’s Pacific Hold
Sunday, 10 December 2023, 7:18 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Cunning, subtle, understated. Israeli policy in the Pacific has seen United Nations votes cast in its favour, the foreign policies of certain countries adjusted, and favours switched. While China may be considered the big, threatening beast competing ... More >>
The View From Washington: Let The Killing In Gaza Continue
Sunday, 10 December 2023, 4:18 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction. But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets: How to justify ... More >>
The View From Washington: Let The Killing In Gaza Continue
Sunday, 10 December 2023, 4:17 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction. But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets: How to justify ... More >>
Scoop Post Election Podcast: River Of Freedom Review
Sunday, 10 December 2023, 12:05 pm | Scoop Election Podcast
After recording a River of Freedom review the Scoop Political Podcast went into hibernation. Now with a new Government formed it’s time to dust off this forgotten silver. More >>
On The Skewed Media Coverage Of Gaza
Friday, 8 December 2023, 11:33 am | Gordon Campbell
Now that he’s back as Foreign Minister, maybe Winston Peters should start reading the MFAT website. If he did, Peters would find MFAT celebrating the 25th anniversary of how New Zealand alerted the rest of the world to the genocide developing in Rwanda. ... More >>
Dunne's Weekly: Meagher Hits The Mark
Friday, 8 December 2023, 9:56 am | Peter Dunne
New National MP James Meagher broke the long-standing convention that Maiden Speeches should be non-controversial. His speech not only raised a few eyebrows but also would have struck some raw nerves. Meagher described himself as a "walking contradiction" ... More >>
Dying To Be Free: Releasing Palestinian Captives Is Not A Numbers Game
Thursday, 7 December 2023, 9:16 pm | Ramzy Baroud
The whole thing may appear to be an exercise in futility, but there is a point why Palestinians are keen on releasing their prisoners, despite the heavy price they continue to pay for their freedom. It may seem rational to ask the question: what ... More >>
Actuarial Justice: Released Refugees And Secondary Punishment
Thursday, 7 December 2023, 2:56 pm | Binoy Kampmark
In most instances, the justice system of a liberal democracy presumes absence of arbitrary and cruel treatment by the State. Punishment, when levelled, is finite. It might see out the term of a convict’s natural life, but that would only be for ... More >>
Shadows of Children
Wednesday, 6 December 2023, 3:00 pm | Embassy of Israel
The worst nightmares could not have prepared the care providers and hospitals for the day they received 39 children who were torn from their cribs and beds and dragged to hell, barefoot and half asleep, some with only one of their parents, some completely ... More >>
On The Government's Assault On Maori
Wednesday, 6 December 2023, 2:10 pm | Gordon Campbell
This isn’t news, but the National-led coalition is mounting a sustained assault on Treaty rights and obligations. Even so, Christopher Luxon has described yesterday’s nationwide protests by Maori as “pretty unfair.” Poor thing. In the NZ Herald, ... More >>
COP28: Where Fossil Fuel Industries Go To Gloat
Wednesday, 6 December 2023, 1:15 pm | Binoy Kampmark
The sequence of COP meetings, ostensibly a United Nations forum to discuss dramatic climate change measures in the face of galloping emissions, has now been shown for what it is: a luxurious, pampered bazaar for the very industries that fear a dip ... More >>
Refreshing The Camelot School: Kennedy Hagiography At Sixty
Tuesday, 5 December 2023, 12:41 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Camelot, the sweetly sentimental shorthand for a shortened US presidency, has generated a mythopoetry so rich it turns the stomach, clogs the intestines, and soils the historical record. With its effacing tendencies, its soppily loyal hagiographers, its ghastly, ... More >>
ExxonMobil Wants To Start A War In South America
Tuesday, 5 December 2023, 12:07 pm | Globetrotter
Vijay Prashad On December 3, 2023, a large number of registered voters in Venezuela voted in a referendum over the Essequibo region that is disputed with neighboring Guyana. Nearly all those who voted answered yes to the five questions. These questions ... More >>
On The Government’s Smokefree Laws Debacle
Monday, 4 December 2023, 11:36 am | Gordon Campbell
The most charitable explanation for National’s behaviour over the smokefree legislation is that they have dutifully fulfilled the wishes of the Big Tobacco lobby and then cast around – incompetently, as it turns out - for excuses that might sell this ... More >>
History Of Gaza: On Conquerors, Resurgence And Rebirth
Monday, 4 December 2023, 11:09 am | Ramzy Baroud
Those unfamiliar with Gaza and its history are likely to always associate Gaza with destruction, rubble and Israeli genocide. And they can hardly be blamed. On November 3, the UN Development Programme and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western ... More >>
Banished from Pakistan: Islamabad Moves on Afghan Refugees
Sunday, 3 December 2023, 3:17 pm | Binoy Kampmark
Across the globe, refugees, always treated as the pox of public policy, continue to feature in news reports describing anguish, despair and persistent persecution. If they are not facing barbed wire barriers in Europe, they are being conveyed, where ... More >>
Download Weekly: Satellites to back-up Spark mobile backhaul
Sunday, 3 December 2023, 11:44 am | Digitl
Spark turns to Starlink for back-up mobile backhaul and tests text by satellite. One NZ customer support draws on AWS AI More >>
Supremacism, Israel And Neozionism
Friday, 1 December 2023, 2:15 pm | Keith Rankin
Keith Rankin, 1 December 2023 Supremacism is a cultural belief that an in-group of humanity is inherently superior to other groups, and that those other groups have lesser human rights as a consequence of their presumed inferiority or ... More >>
Henry Kissinger: Snake Oil Salesman Of Gangster Realism
Friday, 1 December 2023, 11:38 am | Ramzy Baroud
“‘He’ll have ye smilin’,” an old Irish saying goes, “while he takes the gold out of your teeth’.” Charles Glass, London Review of Books , Oct 20, 2022 The obituaries of criminals, masterful or otherwise, are always going to be ... More >>
United For Gaza: Time Now For Palestinians To Protect Their Collective Sumud
Thursday, 30 November 2023, 2:51 pm | Ramzy Baroud
Shortly after the start of a four-day ceasefire in the war on Gaza, the prime ministers of Spain and Belgium, Pedro Sanchez and Alexander De Croo, appeared in a joint press conference at Rafah Crossing. While Sanchez described “what is happening (as) a ... More >>
Sovereignty Surrendered: Subordinating Australia’s Defence Industry
Thursday, 30 November 2023, 1:10 pm | Binoy Kampmark
One could earn a tidy sum the number of times the word “sovereignty” has been uttered or mentioned in public statements and briefings by the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. But such sovereignty has shown itself to be counterfeit. The net ... More >>
The Minister For Smoking Must Resign
Thursday, 30 November 2023, 12:12 pm | Eugene Doyle
Dr Shane Reti, the Minister for Smoking, needs to do the honourable thing. That seems unlikely, given he will shortly co-sign a death warrant for thousands of vulnerable people, but it must be called for: resign. I can’t think of a more ignoble start ... More >>
On How Climate Change Threatens Cricket‘s Future
Thursday, 30 November 2023, 10:38 am | Gordon Campbell
Well that didn’t last long, did it? Mere days after taking on what he called the “awesome responsibility” of being Prime Minister, M Christopher Luxon has started blaming everyone else, and complaining that he has inherited “economic vandalism ... More >>
The Rise Of The Desk Clerk Academic
Wednesday, 29 November 2023, 1:18 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It is a particularly quotidian breed in the modern, management-driven university. The desk clerk who pretends to be an academic and researcher but is neither. The desk clerk who admires rosters, work plans and “key performance indicators”, ... More >>
Tone-deaf Health System Leadership: Business Consultants And A Symbolic Specialist Resignation
Tuesday, 28 November 2023, 5:55 pm | Ian Powell
The catalyst for the heading of this blog was a text I recently received from a former district health board (DHB) chair on the response of Health New Zealand (Te Whatu Ora) to a paywalled article by journalist Isaac Davison in the NZ Herald (24 ... More >>
Letter From Israeli Hostage To Qassam
Tuesday, 28 November 2023, 1:31 pm | Julie Webb-Pullman
A message from one of the detainees to the fighters and leaders of the Al-Qassam Brigades who accompanied her during her detention period before her release in the exchange deal as part of the humanitarian truce. The letter reads: "To the generals ... More >>
COP28:8: Amplifying Pacific Voices For Climate Action
Tuesday, 28 November 2023, 11:23 am | UNDP
In the heart of the Pacific Ocean, a silent crisis unfolds. Amidst the Pacific’s pristine waters and lush greenery, countries are slowly disappearing, their very existence threatened by the continued impacts of climate change. This is not a distant ... More >>
When We Protest And Demonstrate Palestinians Feel They Are Not Alone
Tuesday, 28 November 2023, 10:19 am | Redress Information
Fernando Guevara writes” Words fail as we see the unimaginable horrors that we wish we had not seen. As we hear of the unthinkable, which we wish that nobody had ever had to experience. These necropolitics must not be permitted to continue. Necropolitics ... More >>
Download Weekly: MyRepublic Mobile reborn as Rocket Mobile
Tuesday, 28 November 2023, 10:09 am | Digitl
MyRepublic becomes Rocket Mobile, Customer services quality tests new lows, ComCom on customer service work. Rural broadband build nears end. More >>
Rot In The Civil Service: Farewelling Mike Pezzullo
Monday, 27 November 2023, 2:40 pm | Binoy Kampmark
There was no better example of Australia’s politicised public service than its Home Affairs Secretary, Mike Pezzullo. In most other countries, he would have been the ideal conspirator in a coup, a tittletattler in the ranks and bound to brief ... More >>
One Small, Red Triangle: Palestine, We Are Finally Looking
Monday, 27 November 2023, 1:56 pm | Ramzy Baroud
Did you know that there was an international conference held in France on November 9 under the title ‘International Humanitarian Conference for Gaza’s Civilian Population’? According to the French foreign ministry website , the conference ... More >>
On The New Government’s Policies Of Yesteryear
Monday, 27 November 2023, 10:06 am | Gordon Campbell
This column expands on a Werewolf column published by Scoop on Friday Routinely, Winston Peters is described as the kingmaker who gets to decide when the centre right or the centre-left has a turn at running this country. He also plays a less heralded ... More >>
Far-right Government Formed In New Zealand
Monday, 27 November 2023, 9:55 am | Socialist Equality Group
By Tom Peters, After 40 days of secret negotiations following New Zealand’s October 14 election, the conservative National Party leader Christopher Luxon yesterday signed a coalition deal to form a government with two widely despised far-right parties, ... More >>
Gordon Campbell On The New Government’s Great Leap Backwards
Friday, 24 November 2023, 5:35 pm | Gordon Campbell
After all the cries of “are we there yet” New Zealand does now indeed have a new government. More >>
Pallywood Tactics: Al-Shifa Hospital And Israel’s Propaganda Effort
Friday, 24 November 2023, 12:32 pm | Binoy Kampmark
It resembles a chronology of desperation, shifting narratives, and schoolboy howlers. From the outset, the mass lethality of Israeli strikes against Gaza and the collective punishment of its populace needed some justification, however tenuous. If it could ... More >>
Eco-Camouflage And The Fossil Fuel Lobby: The War Against Wind Farms
Friday, 24 November 2023, 1:41 am | Binoy Kampmark
The fossil fuel lobby has had a busy year on the eco-camouflage front. Earlier this year, interest started to rumble and rage against the stranding of humpback whales on the east coast of the United States. Suddenly, opponents of wind turbine technology ... More >>
The Old And New Nakba: Forced Expulsion Of Palestinians Must Be Rejected
Thursday, 23 November 2023, 2:46 pm | Ramzy Baroud
It is simply inaccurate to claim that the ongoing Israeli attempt to displace all, or many Palestinian refugees from Gaza to Sinai is a new idea, compelled by recent circumstances. Displacing Palestinians, or as it is known in Israeli political lexicon, ... More >>
New Zealand Medical Lab Workers Strike Again Over Low Wages
Thursday, 23 November 2023, 11:39 am | Socialist Equality Group
By Tom Peters More than 1,000 medical laboratory workers in New Zealand held 24-hour strikes on November 17 and 20, with workers in different parts of the country striking on different days. The workers, including scientists, technicians, and phlebotomists, ... More >>
Why Labour Lost The 2023 Election So Badly
Thursday, 23 November 2023, 1:57 am | Ian Powell
On 1 August 2017 Jacinda Ardern was elected leader of the opposition Labour Party in extraordinary circumstances. Opinion polls were showing Labour heading towards a massive fourth consecutive electoral defeat in September. National meanwhile was ... More >>
The rule of law is fundamental to a free society – so why don’t NZ courts always uphold it?
Wednesday, 22 November 2023, 11:17 am | The Conversation
Court decisions based on a judge’s discretion rather than the letter of the law are increasingly common. But this risks undermining some basic liberties. More >>
Health and education are closely linked – NZ needs to integrate them more in primary schools
Wednesday, 22 November 2023, 11:13 am | The Conversation
New Zealand’s health and education sectors are largely siloed and separate. But all the evidence points to collaboration within schools leading to better health and educational outcomes for children. More >>
Is New Zealand A State Sponsor Of Terrorism?
Wednesday, 22 November 2023, 10:38 am | Eugene Doyle
Terrorism is the unlawful use of violence to advance political aims, particularly if that violence targets civilians. The terrorist entity can be a non-state actor, such as Al-Qaeda which toppled the Twin Towers in New York in 2001, or the far-left ... More >>
