Foodbank workers were quite correct when they told Steve Maharey that the Government's social policies aren't working, National's Social Services spokesperson Bob Simcock said today.

"Even the Prime Minister has admitted food banks are doing a 'brisker' trader with more food parcels being given away than ever before. Today's revelation that food prices have gone up a whopping 6.5% under Labour has only added to concerns that this Government is failing in the social services arena.

"The Minister needs to realise that more, not less, people are struggling to make ends meet. This is reflected in the fact that more people have been forced to apply for a whole range of benefits and allowances.

Over the last year we have seen the following increases in the number of New Zealanders dependent on benefits:

Invalids Benefit up 4617 Community Wage-sickness up 494 Disability Allowance up 11067 Special Benefit up 1600 since May 2000 Benefit Advances up 31139 (worth $10m)

"Is this what the Prime Minister means when she talks about transforming New Zealand?" Bob Simcock said.

Ends

*Work and Income New Zealand statistics, as at October and November 2000.

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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>>