The idea of separate jails for Maori, is turning the Treaty of Waitangi on its head, ACT leader Richard Prebble says.

Mr Prebble was responding to requests by Maori groups, revealed in the Corrections Department's new Treaty of Waitangi plan, for a parallel corrections system for Maori and marae rehabilitation.

"Article 3 of the Treaty gave Maori full rights as British citizens, which meant one law for all - and the same punishment for all. `He iwi tahi tatou' - `we are now one people'.

"The Treaty is not a separatist constitution. Articles 1 and 3 contain nothing about shared sovereignty or partnership. A handful of judges invented the partnership principle of the Treaty, at the invitation of opportunistic politicians.

"ACT will not agree to an apartheid justice system," Mr Prebble 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>>