Media Release
24 March 2004

Money Down The Gurgler

New Zealand First is questioning the decision by the Gisborne District Council to allow a further 27 pokie machines into the area.

“Pokie machine players in the Gisborne area lost $9 million during 2003, it is outrageous that the council is allowing more of these socially destructive machines into the area,” said social services spokesperson Bill Gudgeon.

“Gisborne is an area with high poverty and unemployment and the last thing the area needs is more pokie machines.

“New Zealand First wants local body politicians to introduce schemes that promote employment and positive family values, not pokie machines which contribute to the misery within the family environment,” said Mr Gudgeon.

ENDS

© 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>>