Trevor Listens, Yeah Right!

Education Minister Trevor Mallard's backdown on school network reviews has got everything to do with Labour's bad polling, and nothing to do with quality education, ACT New Zealand Education Spokesman Deborah Coddington said today.

"The Minister would never have buckled if Labour were not going down the gurgler, and Mr Mallard is just being cute when he says the moratorium will only apply to future schools," Miss Coddington said.

"With Labour set to lose the next election, these reviews would never have happened anyway.

"ACT will continue to fight to save those schools currently under review, and we will force the Minister to admit that the closure of these schools is sad for education.

"ACT will also campaign to save integrated schools from being sucked into the Minister's control. We still expect a strong turnout at tomorrow's protest. We will send a message to this Government that New Zealanders are fed up with being pushed around.

"This is a bad government and it must go," Miss Coddington 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>>