30 August 2004

Aussie Bank Does DOC's Job

New Zealand First conservation spokesperson Edwin Perry is asking why the Department of Conservation is putting begging bowls in an Australian owned bank to save the kiwi while DoC spends millions of dollars buying South Island high country.

“On Thursday the Minister announced that the Nature Heritage Fund had paid $3.5 million for 8,517 hectares of Castle Hill Station at Porters Pass to secure permanent public access to a skifield, rock climbing areas and tramping, hunting and mountain biking spots.

“Meanwhile, back in the real world the Australian owned Bank of New Zealand is running a campaign asking customers for spare change to help stop the decline of the kiwi population.

“It is time the Minister explained to taxpayers exactly how it comes about that on one hand we can afford to spend millions of dollars buying up the South Island high country while on the other the Australians have to help out with kiwi preservation.

“This can only be described as a cynical public relations exercise by everyone concerned,” said Mr Perry.

ENDS

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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>>