Political Expediency Hijacks Tenure Review

South Island High Country farmers should consider withdrawing from the Labour Government's tenure review process, ACT New Zealand Rural Affairs Spokesman Gerry Eckhoff suggested today.

"It is very clear that this issue is not about sustainability of the high country, but purely about a political agenda to ensure control over parts of it are removed from lessees and given to the State," Mr Eckhoff said.

"Attendees at today's High Country Accord meeting in Christchurch heard from a host of speakers - widely regarded as experts in their field - who indicated that the tenure review is not about sustainability or good science, but all about Prime Minister Helen Clark and her Conservation Minister Chris Carter, who are driven by political expediency.

"The only real option for many leaseholders will be to withdraw from a process that offers them nothing," Mr Eckhoff said.

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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>>