Scoop Editorial
on the government’s bizarre hostility to a capital gains tax
Oyez oyez, CEO Antonia Watson, CEO of the biggest bank in New Zealand has come out in favour of a capital gains tax! Actually, this is not a daring new…
on Nicola Willis’ perverse hostility to working from home
Vaccine work mandates, no. Work-in-the-office mandates? Hell yes, Finance Minister Nicola Willis is all for them. Given half the chance, she believes, “some people but not all” will just skive…
Gordon Campbell on the perils of Israel’s war fever
Israel seems on the brink of achieving the war with Iran that Benjamin Netanyahu has been trying all year to provoke. Until now, Iran had not taken the bait. It…
Gordon Campbell on New Zealand’s timid reluctance to tax the rich
“Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where…
Gordon Campbell on why political consensus is SO divisive
Around 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…
Gordon Campbell On Luxon And Seymour’s Good Cop/Bad Cop Routine On The Treaty
This 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…
Gordon Campbell On The Mindset Driving The Crisis In Public Health
As far as the rest of the country is concerned,Wellington rarely has a Goldilocks moment. Central government is either too involved in telling people what to do, or not involved…
Gordon Campbell on the Dunedin hospital fiasco
The word “blow-out” is such a politically loaded term. It carries a strong whiff of extravagance and incompetence. In fact, and with public health budgets in particular, going “over budget”…
Gordon Campbell On Funding New Drugs, And Governing In Bad Faith
Like the arms race, the funding of new cancer drugs is an endless upwards spiral. First though, let’s have the good news. Yesterday, the Phamac office in Wellington announced that…
Gordon Campbell on ACT’s plans to strip away the rights of gig economy workers
Common sense tells us that power in the workplace is not evenly divided. That’s one reason why the ability to bargain collectively is such an important safeguard for workers. It…
Glen Johnson Reports From Ukraine
The Ukraine Counter-offensive as seen from and in Ukraine
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine – At the start of June, Ukraine’s defense ministry released a PR video of soldiers holding single fingers to their lips and vowing silence – “Shhh” – around…
Post Vilnius NATO Summit it has been all downhill for Zelensky
Glen Johnson VILNIUS/ZELENSKY 14.08.2023 KHARKIV, Ukraine – In the weeks leading up to last month’s NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, the collective West could barely contain its disappointment in Ukraine’s…
UKRAINE: All Is Far From Quiet On The Eastern Front
Glen Johnson Reports From Ukraine. 26.09.2023 ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — At the end of August, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, told those criticizing the speed of his country’s ‘much anticipated counter-offensive’…
Glen Johnson In Ukraine: Update on the counter offensive
Glen Johnson 07.11.2023 Counter-offensive Street art in Odessa depicting stacking dolls as bombs. BUCHAREST, Romania — At the end of September, Nataliya (24), a paramedic from Kharkiv, packed a suitcase…
Māori Housing
Māori Party Housing Policy Analysis
First up – Te Paati Māori. After a term out of parliament, a new team led by John Tamihere and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer are hoping to wrest back the Māori seats…
Green Party Māori Housing Policy
Next up – the Greens. As a minor political party, the Greens will need to work in coalition or as a confidence and supply partner with a Labour-led government. Strong…
Labour’s Māori Housing Policy
As the incumbent, Labour have a clear advantage when it comes to policy, building on a previous term in government. With some major structural changes so far, as well as…
NZ First Māori Housing Policy Analysis
Next up – NZ First. Down in the polls this time around, Labour’s current coalition partner NZ First were the kingmakers last election. So, how might NZ First influence the…
National Party Māori Housing Policy Analysis
Finally – the National Party. After three years in opposition, National is vying for the opportunity to make a comeback. What will National do to improve housing outcomes, and how…
Māori Housing Policy Scorecard
In the lead up to the 2020 general election, Te Matapihi have taken an in-depth look at each of the different political parties housing policies, with a focus on what…
Transitional Democracy
What Do We Mean By Transitional Democracy?
This week, The Dig and ScoopCitizen launch an engaged journalism series exploring key aspects of the transition required for Aotearoa to navigate the crises we face, and to thrive as…
Government Upgraded: Democracy 2.0 in Aotearoa?
“Imagine a twenty-first century piece of software trying to run on a twentieth-century computer, and you have a fair picture of the New Zealand democratic system”. Max Rashbrooke Max Rashbrooke’s…
Democracy 2.0 : What is on offer in GE 2020?
Imagine a twenty-first century piece of software trying to run on a twentieth-century computer, and you have a fair picture of the New Zealand democratic system. We live in a…
This Is Not a Democracy
Aren’t we lucky, we’re constantly told, that we live in a democracy, a government by and of and for the people. Except our system of government is none of those…
We Need to Reset Democracy – TEDx Talk
Our current democratic system is like a twentieth-century computer trying to run twenty-first-century programmes. We need to upgrade our system, drawing on our untapped abilities as citizens. Things like citizens’…
Your Sigh Of Relief Is Grounded In Delusion: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
Caitlin Johnstone Ahh at long last America is returning to normality: the hub of a globe-spanning empire which rings the planet with military bases and destroys any nation which disobeys…
Livelihoods
Three important refugee Issues in a COVID-19 Dominated election?
The refugee quota got doubled, but what can be done in a COVID-19 world? Three important refugee topics for the 2020 election. You may be forgiven for thinking the refugee…
What would a Green New Deal look like in Aotearoa?
And what are the preconditions for achieving it? Top-down solution building is the work of yesterday, not the work for today, or the future. A people-centred Green New Deal could…
Māori Housing Issues in Election 2020
The big issue of 2020 – COVID-19 – has sharply exposed the disparities between Māori and non-Māori, with access to adequate and affordable housing remaining a critical issue for whānau…
Benefits: The Unkindest Politics of All
Jeremy Rose analyses the social welfare policies of Ardern’s Labour-led Government and other prospective parties. Jacinda Ardern launched Labour’s 2017 campaign by quoting former Labour prime minister Norman Kirk as…
Benefits Policy Panel Discussion Video
Welcome to the Dig’s Panel discussion on Benefits Watch the video featuring our knowledgeable and passionate panelists. You can also take part in the ScoopCitizen survey below, or ask any…
Ecology
Transitional Energy: A Better Future For Energy in Aotearoa, NZ
There is no energy crisis, only a crisis of Ignorance. R. Buckminster Fuller Energy is fundamental to life on Earth – without it, there would be no heat, food, motion,…
Summary: the Clean Energy Plan
This is a summary version of a policy Analysis by Jack Young, Engineer specialising in industrial energy management and sustainability. For the full version with references and scientific discussion go…
The Greens’ Clean Energy Plan
A policy Analysis by Jack Young, Engineer specialising in industrial energy management and sustainability. For the shorter summary version go here. On 12th July 2020, the New Zealand Green Party…
Wishes vs Reality: the Role of Net Energy Analysis in Our Future
The Good There are encouraging signs that the world is finally waking up to the climate challenge. One of the most encouraging signs is the growing acknowledgement that we need…
Energy Policy Roundup 2020
A policy analysis of the key energy policies of the main parties in the 2020 Election by the Scoop Editorial team as part of the Transitional Energy Series. One of…
Ardern’s government and climate policy: Leader or Follower?
Despite A Zero-Carbon Law, Is New Zealand Merely A Follower Rather Than A Leader? David Hall, Auckland University of Technology Back in pre-COVID times last year, when New Zealand passed…
Voting for the future
We can choose to be sustainable or unsustainable. There is no third option, and the unsustainable, by definition, ceases. Nobody in their right mind would vote for a party promising…
Wellbeing
Perspective is Critical: Assessing And Improving NZ’s Covid-19 Performance
Comparing New Zealand’s elimination approach to the Covid-19 pandemic with the alternatives, the upsides overwhelmingly outweigh the downsides. However, there is much more our ‘liberal technocrat’ Government could be doing…
Guided Autocracy: Proposed Health System Reforms in NZ
The Simpson Report on NZ’s health and Disability system has laid out a blueprint for widespread reform and centralisation. The next Government will decide whether, and how, the report is…
Apocaloptism
Emancipatory Catastrophism in times of COVID-19
COVID-19 has disrupted politics, the economy, and everyday citizens’ lives in major ways across the planet. Can – and should – such disruption be welcomed as an opportunity for progressive…
The Coronation
Covid-19 is like a rehab intervention that breaks the addictive hold of normality. To interrupt a habit is to make it visible; it is to turn it from a compulsion…
COVID-19: Just Recovery
The COVID-19 crisis is compelling us to kick-start investment in a regenerative and zero-carbon future. We were bold enough to act quickly to stop the virus – can we now…
Insight into Regenerative Agriculture in New Zealand: The Good, the Bad, and the Opportunity
Header Image: Camilla Rutherford 18 Min read The good, the bad, and the opportunity of regenerative farming in NZ In November, 2019 a group of 85 farmers gathered in a…
Steady State Economics: We’ve got some (systems) thinking to do
In this time of impending economic and ecological crises, we urgently need to aim for a sustainable or ‘steady state’ economy. In order to get there, we will need to…
The Other Crisis
Technologist and climate activist Jon Leighton writes about the climate and ecological crisis, and the folly of putting our faith in activism or technological solutions to deliver us from these…
Biodiversity
There is a field: Reimagining Biodiversity in Aotearoa
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there. – Rumi. 13th Century Mystic Poet We are in a moment of existential peril, with…
Whose Biodiversity is it Anyway?
The DOC-led draft Biodiversity Strategy seeks a “shared vision.” But there are more values and views around wildlife than there are species. How can we hope to agree on the…
Kaitiakitanga: seeing nature as your elder
Image: Pīngao glows orange in the late sun at West Ruggedy beach, Rakiura National Park, Stewart Island, New Zealand. Photo: Dave Hansford/Origin Natural History Media As often as she can,…
Community Conservation: A solution to the biodiversity crisis?
Header Image: Tuatara. Photo: Cameron Houston, DOC. Four thousand and sixteen species. That is the staggering number of Aoteaora’s species currently threatened or at risk of extinction. It’s also the…
Hope For Nature: A New Deal For The Commons
Feature Image: Banksy (title unknown). “The top environmental problems are selfishness greed and apathy… and to deal with those we need a spiritual and cultural transformation – and we scientists…
Wāhine Hōiho
Celebrating Sylvia Durrant – A New Zealand Conservation Legend A Visual Ethnography by Todd Henry. Until recently, 85-year-old Sylvia Durrant spent virtually every waking hour of her day caring for…