No More CYF Whitewashes

ACT New Zealand Deputy Leader and Social Welfare Spokesman Dr Muriel Newman today demanded an urgent independent investigation into the case of a six-week-old baby critically injured after being left in his mother's care - after his two older siblings had already been removed by police.

"This is no simple matter of departmental incompetence. A child's life is in danger after he was left with a woman who had already had two children - one reportedly covered in faeces and urine - removed by police," Dr Newman said.

"Now, developments in the House have uncovered discrepancies between what CYF Minister Ruth Dyson has told Parliament, and the facts we know from other sources like the police. It is clear now that either CYF has misled the Minister, or the Minister has misled Parliament.

"Answers are needed - answers that can only be found through an independent investigation, rather than an internal inquiry that will prove to be nothing more than the usual whitewash vindication of CYF.

"This child, currently battling for his life in Starship Children's Hospital, is the latest in a long list of children hurt by CYF incompetence. This is totally unacceptable, and it is time for the Minister to come clean," Dr Newman said.

© 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>>