ACT Happy To Say It Kanohi ki Kanohi

ACT New Zealand Maori Affairs Spokesman Stephen Franks today said he would like to take up the challenge from Waitangi lower Marae spokesmen to deliver the message of Dr Brash's Orewa Rotary speech face to face.

"I'm perfectly willing to speak at Te Tii marae for ordinary New Zealanders - both Maori and pakeha. There is no long-term future for a country built on deliberate race discrimination," Mr Franks said.

"I'll repeat what I've been saying for ACT since I came to Parliament in 1999, and what I've argued in legal circles since Labour, and the courts, started fabricating fake principles and a spurious partnership out of the straight forward and inspired words of the Treaty of Waitangi.

"If invited, I'll try and get there as soon as possible.

"I respect the right of the Marae hosts to choose the media they invite onto the Marae - that is their right under Article Two of the Treaty. However, I think it's unwise and offensive for them to limit it in the circumstances, but that is their privilege.

"I agree with Maori who believe these matters should be debated directly - without the inevitable distortion of reporting. I hope to have that opportunity at Waitangi and elsewhere," Mr Franks said.

© 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>>