Nick Smith National MP

22 May 2001

Smith welcomes Lashlie reinstatement

Nelson MP Nick Smith today welcomed the reappointment of Celia Lashlie as the advisor to Nelson schools to assist in developing programmes that will help at-risk pupils.

"This is excellent news and vindication of our campaign to have her sacking overturned. It is a defeat for the politically correct purists who will gag any meaningful debate about children under the guise of privacy.

"The surprising outcome is the resignation of the SES Chair Graham Lovelock when he had no involvement, according to the report, in the dismissal. He has become the fall guy and the public is left wondering just who was responsible for this mess.

"Someone in this sorry business has told a porkie and we are none the wiser as to who it was. Celia Lashlie has said "I heard those words 'The Minister's office and the Ministry are angry at your comments and consider that you have stepped across the line'. Either the SES, the Ministry or the Minister's office did not tell the truth and this report has failed to get to the bottom of this.

"The most important outcome is that Celia Lashlie is back working for Nelson schools and that the debate of children at risk of becoming criminals is not going to be silenced," Dr Smith said.

Ends

© Scoop Media

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>>