ACT MP Rodney Hide said today that Parliament now has the chance to settle Treaty issues once and for all and move on.

“New Zealanders are getting sick of the racial division and constant bickering over who owns what. We can’t keep on dividing ourselves racially and haggling over who owns what for the next one hundred years.

“New Zealanders of all races are getting sick of the flourishing grievance industry. They want to see an end to the division and the bickering. The public wants leadership and certainty on this issue.

“My Treaty of Waitangi (Final Settlement of Claims) Bill, which was drawn in the ballot of members’ bills today, has a cut-off date for receiving new claims at the end of this year, sets a five-year timetable for hearing all outstanding claims, and a further five-year timetable for settling them.

“MPs now have the chance to vote to settle all claims over the next ten years. I am afraid that if Parliament does not set a clear timetable for settlement then the Treaty grievance industry is set to continue forever and a day to the great cost of us all.

“With Parliament’s backing we can set the timetable, make the settlements and then abolish the Tribunal, along with the whole grievance industry,” Rodney Hide 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>>