Wednesday, 1 September, 2004

Dunne: Aussies calling our foreign policy line?

A Foreign Affairs official told Taiwanese authorities that Taiwanese Minister Lin Yi-fu would not be allowed into New Zealand because he wasn't being allowed into Australia, casting huge doubt on the autonomy of New Zealand policy, United Future leader Peter Dunne said in Parliament today.

"Since when has New Zealand foreign affairs policy been set in Canberra?" Mr Dunne asked later.

He said the Government had been all over the place on the issue today, only further confirming that the reality is that it will do it anything it can to curry favour with China for the planned free trade deal.

"Nothing else explains the craven approach the Government is taking on this issue," Mr Dunne said.

Justice Minister Phil Goff's putting the decision in the context of not wanting to escalate tensions between China and Taiwan, during a radio interview this morning, was "utterly lame", he said.

"Is he seriously claiming that it would start World War III?" Mr Dunne asked in the House, citing the decisions in recent days by both China and Taiwan to cancel their military exercises in the Taiwan Strait to help defuse tensions.

"Mr Goff apparently feels New Zealand can single-handedly derail such progress with a misplaced visa."

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>>