Lakes Hand-Over A Political Rort

ACT New Zealand Maori Affairs Spokesman Stephen Franks today applauded the Rotorua Lakes Protection Society for its decision to go to the High Court in a bid to prevent the Government from giving ownership of 13 Rotorua lakes to Te Arawa.

"The court challenge is commendable - but I doubt it will work," Mr franks said.

"It would be good to have a truly objective court looking at this issue, applying normal standards of evidence and proof to consider whether the last full and final settlement should be replaced with another one.

"Sadly, however, I doubt that the Society will get very far - the insiders of the Treaty industry work behind closed doors, well locked against the commonsense of ordinary New Zealanders by Parliamentary collusion.

"National and NZ First will support Labour. This deal seems to be a political rort designed to buy Labour Party votes, with the support of parties that only know appeasement," Mr Franks 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>>