Kedgley: Keep the boozy bikkies out of NZ

Arnott's attempts to market alcohol-flavoured chocolate biscuits in New Zealand represents a dangerous new ploy by marketers to hook children and young people into the culture of alcohol at an early age, Green MP Sue Kedgley today.

Ms Kedgley, the Green spokesperson for Health and Food Safety called on Arnott's to immediately halt their plans to introduce the biscuits to the New Zealand market and said the time was right for a comprehensive review of foodstuffs aimed at children and young people that contained alcohol.

"Marketers are targeting children and young people at ever-younger ages in an attempt to get them hooked on the taste of alcohol," said Ms Kedgley. "Introducing booze-flavoured chocolate biscuits is going far too far.

"This is going to the limits of predatory marketing. In recent years the market has been flooded with sweet alco-pop drinks and alcoholic lollies directly marketed at young people. Now we're faced with alcoholic bikkies.

"What's the point of making alcohol illegal to people under the age of 18 when all manner of products are being sneaked into the food chain?" she asked.

Ms Kedgley called on the Government to conduct a review of all products aimed at children and young people that contain alcohol or have alcohol-like flavouring with a view of prohibiting these products.

"We have a big enough problem with booze-culture in New Zealand without young children developing a taste for the bottle before they even hit their teenage years," said Ms Kedgley.

"Marketers and manufacturers need to exhibit some sense of social responsibility and curb their predatory marketing tendencies. I call on Arnott's to rethink their decision and put social responsibility ahead of profits."

© 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>>