Hubbard Says Banks Must Front Up With Cash

Dick Hubbard encourages charities from around the country to get in quickly with their claim for $20,000 after Mayor John Banks announced on TVNZ’s Holmes programme (31 August) that he would pay up if he was proven wrong about his comments regarding George Wood and also Asians spitting in the streets of Auckland.

Dick says the whole country got the message when Mayor John Banks made the startling comments earlier this year.

John Banks remarks regarding the ‘spitting’ issue were published in the NZ Herald and reported by Renee Kiriona on February 23, 2004. The comment about George Wood being ‘pathetic’ was reported in the NZ Herald on August 5, 2004.

“John Banks can deny it all he likes. He’s arguing semantics. He has been caught out and must front up with the money,” Dick says “It’s only fair to pay up as charities rely so much on generous donations such as this.”

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>