14 June 2001 Media Release

Anderton to seek further Napier-Gisborne rail update

Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton will ask Tranz Rail for an update on its plans for the Napier-Gisborne rail line.

The final draft of the Tairawhiti Integrated Transport Strategy will be completed this month.

Jim Anderton says the Ministry of Economic Development believes that job losses on the line and service reductions are not inevitable.

"There may have been some communication difficulties and there remain a number of options for the future of the line, and both the government and Tranz Rail are working on the issue.

"Above all, Tranz Rail has assured the government that it has no plan to close the line in the near future, therefore there does not seem to be an immediate threat to the workers' jobs.

"I will be meeting with Tranz Rail next week to get an update on this issue," Jim Anderton 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>>