Improvements to the road network are necessary if we are to increase the size of trucks, ACT MP Penny Webster said today.

"Jeanette Fitzsimons and Sue Kedgley's calls for more freight to be carried by rail are shortsighted and reactionary. The Greens have not thought through the issue. They use emotive arguments and incorrect statistics."

LTSA statistics show that in 1999, trucks were involved in seven per cent of fatal accidents - far below the 20 per cent figure claimed yesterday by Ms Fitzsimons and Ms Kedgley.

"Forcing companies to move freight on trains may be all very well for businesses based on major trunk lines. But there are hundreds of towns that the trains go nowhere near. Wanganui and New Plymouth are just two examples, to say nothing of double-handling getting freight to and from rail-heads.

"If our road network is up to scratch, there is absolutely nothing to fear from allowing bigger trucks.

"A ten per cent reduction in freight costs would create 33,000 new full-time jobs. It is time for the Greens to use more common sense and business acumen in this debate," Penny Webster 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>>