Monday, 26 March 2001 Media Statement

Where does National stand on the Maori Option?

The Associate Minister of Justice, Margaret Wilson, says Jenny Shipley should tell Maori voters whether she agrees with Murray McCully's attack on the Maori option process.

"The Maori option is a process laid down in a law passed by a National-led government of which Murray McCully was a part. He now calls his own law 'racist', and urges the government not to spend money on telling people about their democratic rights.

"All voters are targeted by campaigns run by the Electoral Enrolment Centre. Because Maori can choose to change the type of roll they are on every five years it's important to make sure they know their rights. That's what the campaign is about.

"Murray McCully somehow thinks we'll be better off if people are not told about their democratic rights. He's wrong, and his leader has a responsibility to make her party's position clear, so that Maori voters can see just where National stands".

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>>