ACT Leader Hon Richard Prebble said today that Associate Labour Minister Laila Harre should be sacked for her role in the waterfront dispute.

“The mediator’s report now states that on all four issues the New Zealand Waterside Workers Union has picketed South Island ports for, it is either incorrect or partially inaccurate in its claims.

“Mainland Ltd is not undermining conditions, and its technology is adding value to NZ exports.

“The police have had to spend over half a million dollars of taxpayers’ money providing protection to Mainland employees. The NZWWU was clearly encouraged to continue with its pickets because of Government support. Someone should be accountable for this huge waste of taxpayers’ money. Laila Harre has wasted 100 times more money than Phillida Bunkle’s accommodation claim.

“Sacking her would be a powerful statement by the Government that it is upholding the rule of law and protecting the right of New Zealanders to belong to the union of their choice,” Hon Richard Prebble said.

ENDS

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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>>