Brash's backroom deal would sink nuclear-free NZ

The Green Party says the Creech Report is a thinly disguised proposal to give the government of the day the sole power to allow nuclear-propelled ships into our ports.

"Repealing the legislation but 'maintaining a nuclear-free policy' would leave New Zealanders at the mercy of future prime ministers to decide in backroom deals with the US whether to let their ships in," Green Co-leader, Jeanette Fitzsimons said. "It is precisely to prevent this that we demanded legislation 20 years ago and it has served us well.

"Nuclear powered ships can malfunction just as land-based nuclear reactors can, and if they do there have less safety shielding to contain the radiation. Moreover, if they are shipwrecked they will eventually be a long-term source of radiation on the bottom of the sea, poisoning our fishing grounds and our coast. We do not need to take that risk."

National released its long-delayed report into New Zealand-US relations late today, while public, political and media attention was focussed firmly on the arrival of the hikoi at Parliament.

"The public should be very clear about this so-called 'Creech Report'," said Ms Fitzsimons. "This is no 'discussion document'. Rather, it is the first step in a deliberate attempt by the National Party to buy this country back into a full-scale economic and military alliance with the United States.

"Our nuclear free status has been the envy of the world since the Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act came into force in 1987. As well as admitting dangerous vessels into our ports, a National policy of alliance with the US would buy us into America's immoral wars."

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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>>