Blundering Nats show ignorance of fisheries law

National's fisheries spokesman is parading his ignorance and prejudice with his claims that customary fishing regulations are not enforced, says Fisheries Minister David Benson-Pope.

"National is so desperate to find favouritism in treatment of Maori that it has leapt to totally false conclusions about the enforcement of customary fishing regulations.

"Offences committed under the guise of customary fishing are generally prosecuted as breaches of recreational fishing regulations or the Fisheries Act. That is why statistics on prosecutions supplied to Mr Heatley show hundreds of infringement notices issued to recreational and commercial fishers and few to customary fishers.

"Mr Heatley failed to ask for any explanation of the statistics, preferring instead to make up his own bogus interpretation. I would offer him a briefing on the facts, but going by his performance so far I seriously doubt whether he has any interest in the truth."

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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>>