National’s Support For Regional Development Welcome

The about-face by the National Party on Regional Development is being welcomed by Industry and Regional Development Minister Jim Anderton.

But speaking from the Regional Development Conference in Rotorua Jim Anderton said National has no credibility on regional development.

“The National Party has voted against every regional development initiative the Labour-Alliance Coalition Government has introduced.

“When it was in Government, National described regional development policies as ‘loony’ and vowed that the New Zealand economy would collapse if I was allowed to introduce any economic development policies.

“In fact, under this Government, New Zealand’s regions are enjoying strong jobs gains and rising prosperity.

“National always said that the decline of the regions was ‘inevitable.’ Their claim now that they see a critical role for the regions is breath-taking hypocrisy.

“The National Party is too frightened to tell six hundred delegates at the Regional Development Conference in Rotorua that National and Act would wipe out every regional intiative this government would put in place.

“I welcome National’s admission that this Government is right, but I don’t believe for a moment that the leopard has really changed its spots,” Jim Anderton 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>>