Taxpayer foots bill for Brash separatism

The Green Party has accused Don Brash and the National Party of billing the New Zealand taxpayer for its advertising campaign to promote racial separatism.

"It's one thing for Don Brash to make a speech displaying his arrogance, ignorance and irresponsibility on race relations," said Green Co-leader Rod Donald. "It's an entirely different matter for the National Party to use taxpayers' funds to promote its separatist agenda.

"The irony will not be lost on New Zealanders that, on one hand, Brash is claiming that the taxpayer is subsidising Maori while, on the other hand, National's newspaper advertising campaign is 100 per cent funded by the taxpayer.

"Brash should have the courage of his convictions and pay for the ads out of his own party coffers.

"If Dr Brash listened to Maori instead of trying to goad them he could be part of the dialogue that is needed to resolve the injustices of the past and explore the way forward.

"Instead, National's Maori-bashing headline grab is a throwback to the discredited politics of envy and greed. It's disappointing that, having lost its novelty value, National now has to buy its media coverage at the expense of the New Zealand taxpayer," said Mr Donald.

© 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>>