Clark Finally Admits Key Role In Rankin Removal Plot

Prime Minister Helen Clark has admitted for the first time that she and Trevor Mallard instigated the plan to merge the Department of Work and Income and the Ministry of Social Policy – and get rid of Christine Rankin.

“After months of Government evasion and cover-ups, the Prime Minister has today finally deigned to give a full answer to one of my countless questions on this issue,” ACT Social Services Spokesman Dr Muriel Newman said. Helen Clark has at last conceded that the issue of the mock-merger first ‘arose in discussion between me and the Minister of State Services, following which the Minister suggested the Commissioner forward his views to me’.

“So now we have it. This was a sham merger which the Prime Minister plotted in order to get rid of one person – as Ms Rankin’s lawyers have argued.

“The Prime Minister has desperately ducked, dodged and weaved questions about her role in this.

“The news that Christine Rankin has won the right to have her case heard in the Employment Court is great news. This will now be a big test of the Government’s Employment Relations Act. I find it ironic that having trumpeted this legislation the Government sought to avoid the first big test case on it.

“Helen Clark and her Government are in deep trouble. If the case does go ahead it will be the biggest show in town. There is no doubt Ms Rankin will subpoena Ministers.

“The Prime Minister’s belated admission of her pivotal role in the scheming to get rid of Ms Rankin makes her an obvious target to be subpoenaed.

“She will do anything she can to avoid this. Now that the Government has lost the first round in the courtroom battle we can expect to see all manner of blocking and delaying tactics from a Government desperate to avoid public scrutiny. Helen Clark and her Ministers don’t want the public to hear the lengths they were prepared to go to in order to get rid of a solo mother.

“If Christine Rankin gets her day in Court it will be devastating for the Prime Minister and her Government,” Dr Newman 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>>