ACT Conservation Spokesman MP Gerry Eckhoff today welcomed the solution to the Whitianga development debacle, but warned that the saga proved the need for radical change.

"This fiasco highlights underlying problems with Department of Conservation's structure.

"It is ludicrous to have DoC giving advice to themselves. One arm of DoC advocates for the environment, so is dogmatically opposed to the Whitianga development.

"However, at the same time, another arm of DoC has responsibility for the management of environmental processes and an obligation to act as 'a good neighbour'. This produces a glaring conflict of interest and is a manipulation of the process.

"We must ensure that the Minister of Conservation has no ability to override community decisions. She needs to understand that people are also part of the environment.

"Sandra Lee - whose stewardship of the conservation portfolio is the worst ever seen - made an injudicious decision purely for short-term political advantage. Her fundamentalist attitude to the environment places DoC in a totally untenable position.

"She should never have become involved. It is fortunate that we can now fix her mistake, but very sad that we have to," Gerry Eckhoff 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>>