26 February 2001 Media Statement

Shipley's criticisms ridiculous and bizarre

Prime Minister Helen Clark said today that National leader Jenny Shipley's criticism of the new New Zealand-Australia social security agreement was simply ridiculous.

"Mrs Shipley doesn't seem to know what she is talking about.

"If she seriously believes that the renegotiating of the trans-Tasman social security agreement represents a worsening of the New Zealand-Australia relationship, then perhaps she should explain why the agreement was renegotiated twice – in 1994 and 1996 – under National.

"More importantly, the negotiations concluded today began she was Prime Minister, in August 1999.

"Perhaps Mrs Shipley is suggesting that the New Zealand welfare system should continue to support not only New Zealanders in New Zealand, but New Zealanders living overseas now and for all time?

"Given her record as the person whose name is synonymous with the slashing of benefits and superannuation, that would be truly bizarre.

"Her criticisms only further outline that, once again, she knows very little about what she is talking about," Helen Clark said.

ENDS

© 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>>