Tempers are flaring in Manukau City over the FlatBush asbestos wrangle.

Soil samples of around 1500 residential homes in the FlatBush suburb of Manukau have been shown to contain Asbestos, many samples show contamination of the dreaded blue asbestos.

Residents are angry because Manukau City Council has decided to apply for government funding to pay for risk assessments in the suburb.

That, the residents say, will take months to get and delays are unacceptable, particularly as the Council’s line will not compensate the residents for any losses associated with the asbestos contamination.

The Manukau Asbestos Action Group spokesperson, who happens to also be Mauri Pacific MP Anne Batten, says the Council's approach to assessing the risk is flawed as they are not investigating all the properties, but only a sample of those contaminated.

Residents, Rev. Batten says, are considering legal action.

© 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>>