Many more submissions on the future of the apple industry are needed if the Government is to make sound decisions, Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton said today.

The Agriculture and Forestry Ministry is reviewing the regulatory framework of the apple and pear exporting industry, and Mr Sutton again urged growers and all industry participants to make submissions on their views about the industry's future direction.

The closing date for submissions is January 31.

Mr Sutton said that so far, only four submissions had arrived.

"Those submissions are useful, but I would like more to base future government decisions on than that."

He said the apple industry had been wracked by controversy last year, and it was important that growers and other industry participants had their say in the future direction of their industry.

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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>>