Dunne: ‘Greater’ Wellington should change its name

United Future leader and Ohariu-Belmont MP, Peter Dunne, says the Greater Wellington regional council has let itself and the Wellington region down badly by its dithering and wavering over support for the Transmission Gully motorway project.

“This is the time for united action by Wellington local and central government to get on with securing a stable, secure land transport route in and out of the capital in order to promote the social and economic welfare of the entire lower North Island.

“We will never persuade central government that Transmission Gully is a priority worth fighting for, if we cannot present a unified regional voice on the issue.

“We should be pulling together right now, not falling apart.

“Yet we are still faced with the unedifying sight of some so-called Greater Wellington councillors failing to stand up for the interests of the people who voted for them,” he said.

“At a time when the region’s business and transport interests, among others, are calling for concerted action to get the project underway, these ‘lesser’ or ‘smaller’ Wellington councillors are doing their best to sabotage this regional effort.

“Perhaps it’s time for the Council to change its name to Backwards Wellington or Unimportant Wellington to reflect its true priorities,” said Mr Dunne.

© 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>>