No price high enough for DOC land grab

No amount of money will help change farmers' attitudes to tenure review, says David Carter, National's Agriculture spokesman.

He is commenting on the $79 million package announced by the Government today to fund the creation of a series of conservation parks from the South Island High Country. The announcement coincided with a forum organised by the High Country Accord in Christchurch today.

"New Zealanders are faced with biggest land grab in history because of the Department of Conservation's intransigent attitude to land tenure," Mr Carter says.

"Thousands of hectares will be at stake if Labour decides to take the land out of farmers' hands and give it to DOC.

"It is inevitable that if this occurs there will be negative economic consequences for high country farmers and the merino industry, not to mention the long-term environmental damage that will occur to this land under DOC management.

"I can assure the Government that after attending the High Country Forum today, what is urgently required is a dramatic change in attitude by this Government and the Department of Conservation," says Mr Carter.

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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>>