Cutbacks In Wellington Wharf Police Utterly Unacceptable

United Future leader and Ohariu Belmont MP, Hon Peter Dunne, says suggestions Wellington's Wharf Police service will be cut back by two days a week are "utterly unacceptable" and must be strongly resisted.

"I appreciate that Wellington Police are under pressure and have to make budget savings, but offering up the Wharf Police is not the way to go about it."

"The Wharf Police and the 'Lady Liz' are not just Wellington icons, but an important element of the national Police structure, given their vital in maritime safety role on Cook Strait."

"They should probably be treated as such and therefore funded as a special item, rather than as part of the Wellington Police District."

"The notion that they should be operational for five days a week only is absurd - given the vagary of conditions on Cook Strait who is going to play God and pick the days on which tragedies will not occur?"

"I will be making urgent representations to the Minister of Police about the need to retain the Wharf Police service in full, and urge all interested members of the Wellington community to join the campaign to save the Wharf Police," Mr Dunne says.

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>>