14 November 2001

Police Minister George Hawkins has dismissed the National Party’s latest accusations of government meddling as another beat up.

Today in Parliament, Simon Power claimed that a letter from the Minister to the National Distribution Union (“NDU”) showed that the Minister was interfering in operational matters.

Mr Hawkins has made all correspondence on the matter available to media this afternoon.

“On 30 August the NDU wrote to me regarding the case of two union officials who had been arrested by police.

“As is my standard practice when dealing with enquiries on operational matters, I referred the letter to the Office of the Commissioner of Police, requesting a draft response. On 18 October I replied to the NDU, using text prepared by the Legal Section of the Police.

“Other than requesting a draft letter, I have had no other communication with the Police on this issue, said Mr Hawkins.

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>>