The discovery of an abandoned baby in Onekawa highlights the way that poor New Zealand schools fail those who most need help, ACT MP Donna Awatere Huata said today.

"While not commenting on this particular case which will soon come before court, I believe that situations like this are symptomatic of a much larger problem.

"Good education produces good parents. Poor education, with teachers who do not care and gaps for kids to fall through, produces bad parents.

"Far too many young women fall pregnant without first attaining any academic qualifications. As a society, we must focus on encouraging our children to make the right choices.

"Young women should stick with school and get an education so they can be financially and emotionally secure.

"I have often been slated for advocating that young women should not bring children into the world until they can provide financial and emotional security, time and wisdom. However, if we scan the newspaper headlines, we see ghastly examples of what happens when young women are not encouraged to make the right decision.

"Education is a ticket to the world and too many kids are missing out. Let's stop the cycle," Donna Awatere Huata said today.

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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>>