"Exactly what is the Government up to with it's Social Security Bill?" National's Social Services spokesperson Bob Simcock asked today.

"Once again the Government is displaying contempt for process and the public. What we are seeing with this bill can only be described as chaos." Last night the Opposition, supported by the Green Party, expressed serious concern at Steve Maharey's desire to rush the law change through the select committee process within two weeks. But the Minister failed to give any reason why the normal hearings process should be ignored.

"The Social Security Non-Resident Spouses Amendment Bill denies welfare to temporary residents who have New Zealand partners. The Bill also comes with a warning from the Attorney General that it is discriminatory against same sex couples and should not proceed.

"The National, Act, Green and New Zealand First parties have all expressed serious reservations about the process but the Government has refused to give any explanation for the unseemly rush, ploughing ahead and dredging up the numbers to refer it to a select committee for two weeks. "This bill will be passed into law but most of the people who are effected will no nothing about it," Bob Simcock 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>>