Stunned by completely unexpected death of Sir Peter

The sudden death of Sir Peter Elworthy was a total shock, Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton said today.

Mr Sutton said Sir Peter, a constituent in Mr Sutton's Aoraki electorate, was always completely fair-minded.

"We had got to know each other in Federated Farmers. When I ran for Parliament against his brother Jonathan in 1981 and again in 1984, it didn't make any difference to our friendship. With Peter, it was always the policies and priniciples that were important, not the colour of the party rosettes.

"As Dominion President of Federated Farmers during the period when farm subsidies were being removed ? which, contrary to some revised accounts, was not wildly popular in the rural community ? Peter was able to preserve a constructive working relationship between the rural industry and the Government throughout.

"It was certainly not the line of least resistance. In fact, it was a demonstration of courage under fire, and it was very much in the interests of New Zealand."

Mr Sutton said Sir Peter's untimely death was a great shock.

"I guess we had all assumed his wise counsel would remain available to us for many more years. He will be greatly missed."

© Scoop Media

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>>