Tuesday 15th May 2001

ACT Internal Affairs Spokesman MP Penny Webster today slammed the Government's moves to ban smoking in bars, saying the move is anti-business, and totally lacks common sense.

"If - as we are led to believe - this is a health issue, then just banning smoking in bars, cafes and restaurants, and not clubs and nightclubs, is nonsense.

"The sensible way would be to set an air-quality standard and allow businesses to meet this in their own way.

"Technology has moved on, and there are many ways of achieving an air quality standard.

"The government's plans create a gaping loophole. In dozens of small towns, the public are going to simply bypass the local bar and head down the road to the Cosmopolitan and RSA clubs.

"The reality is that many small business owners will find it physically and financially impossible to implement the policy, as they lack the space and resources to do so.

"This is an issue about personal choice. Why does this Government continuously try to dictate how people live? This policy, from righteous Labour politicians, is anti-business, and lacks any common-sense," Penny Webster 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>>