The Secretary of the Professional Firefighters Union, Derek Best, clearly wouldn't know if his pants were on fire, National's David Carter said today.

"Last night Mr Best attacked my revelation that some professional firefighters watched a Rugby Sevens match while volunteers were called out to a fire. Mr Best last night said that was 'just nonsense' and added 'it rated right up there with a Moa being found in Arthurs Pass'.

"However today he has conceded to media that my information was, in his words, '100 percent correct'.

"Mr Best is obviously taking lessons in attack-now-find-out-the-facts-later from George Hawkins, who in answer to a Parliamentary question on the incident said that on 9 February this year all 36 paid firefighters who were on duty in the Christchurch metropolitan area attended the scrub fire in the suburb of Ferrymead.

"This is just plain wrong, and Mr Best has belatedly and grudgingly acknowledged that fact.

"I suggest that Mr Best checks his facts before making any similar offensive remarks in future," David Carter 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>>