The high-handed approach to consultation on defence by Prime Minister Helen Clark is deplorable, ACT Defence Spokesman Owen Jennings said.

“The biggest, most radical change to defence in our history is being rammed through with no public involvement,” Owen Jennings said.

“The Quigley Select Committee did not deal with the concepts involved in today’s announcement. In fact the Quigley report favoured an air-strike force and a continuing naval support force.

“The Australian and British Governments have recently released white papers on defence that are far less revolutionary than New Zealand’s changes yet they have embarked on a six month consultation process, including visiting regional centres.

“For a Prime Minister and a Government that makes public consultation essential on almost every issue, this handling of the defence changes is purely two-faced deception,” Owen Jennings 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>>