The Deputy Prime Minister's assurance to the boat industry that the helping hand given to Sovereign Yachts will be 'available to everyone on the same basis' shows Mr Anderton is happy to ride roughshod over the Resource Management Act, Gerry Eckhoff said today.

"Mr Anderton promises that every boat company will be able to sidestep the RMA just like his friends at Sovereign. It is an outrage that a deputy Prime Minister can dish out favours to just one industry and ignore the law of the land - however odious that law may be.

"Boat building companies will be delighted by Mr Anderton's promise. But every New Zealander is hamstrung by the RMA, and treatment must be fair and consistent.

"The deputy Prime Minister has finally identified what resource users have always known: the RMA is one of the main inhibitors of growth in New Zealand.

"Mr Anderton cannot just pick a few industries for a helping hand," Mr Eckhoff 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>>