Crown Forestry Rental Trust A Gravy Train For Privileged

ACT New Zealand Deputy Leader Ken Shirley has a Private Members Bill waiting to go into the ballot which has the intention of introducing transparency into the operations of the Crown Forestry Rental Trust.

"This Trust has become a gravy train for litigation with highly paid consultants and the privileged few wallowing in the trough.

"The Trust receives the rental monies for the Crown forest licence holders with the capital building to over $300 million. The interest on this capital is available for funding Treaty claims.

"It is clear the vested interests have now captured this Trust and the vested interest means that it has become self-perpetuating and has removed any incentive for those benefiting from the Trust to bring the genuine claims to fruition.

"There are reports of appalling misappropriation of funds on a grand scale. My Private Members Bill would make the Trust subject to review by the Auditor General and require that it prepares an annual report to Parliament accounting for its expenditure," concluded Ken Shirley.

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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>>