Saturday 30 June

Misguided LTSA proposals will increase the number of deaths on New Zealand roads and boost the black market in car parts, ACT Transport Spokesman MP Penny Webster said today.

"Hiking the price of used imports by $1,000 will put a newly-imported used car out of reach for many New Zealanders. So they will drive their old cars longer, or buy one of the 820,000 used vehicles already in the country.

"Increasing crash-repair costs will force car owners to avoid taking their vehicle to the garage.

"These laws will boost an illicit trade in cars and car-parts, meaning more people will drive without registrations or Warrants of Fitness.

"It is absolute nonsense to blame the entire road-toll on older Japanese imports. These policies will hurt lower-income families, and horrendously increase carnage on our roads," Penny Webster 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>>