Stop Being Such A Wet Blanket, Transit

ACT New Zealand Transport and Auckland Issues Spokesman Deborah Coddington today urged Transit New Zealand to quit opposing the Auckland V8 Supercar street-race and work more closely with event organisers to ensure its success.

"Transit is just big-noting - and ignoring the potential benefits of this event, which overwhelmingly outweigh the negatives, in an effort to flex its regulatory muscles," Miss Coddington said.

"Transit's threat to veto the race makes absolutely no sense. It raised a similar concern - that of a hindrance to Auckland motorway traffic - over the seabed and foreshore hikoi crossing the Harbour Bridge in April. Transit's concerns proved unfounded then, and will prove unfounded now.

"The likelihood of major delays resulting from the street-race is unlikely - especially as the event will be held during the school holidays.

"The bureaucrats at Transit should stop bullying the Auckland City Council and let it get on with the job of moving our city forward. I doubt that Aucklanders and motor racing fans will thank Transit for putting the kibosh on this exciting and exhilarating spectacle," Miss Coddington 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>>