United Future Backslides Over Waitaki Bill

ACT New Zealand Rural Affairs Spokesman Gerry Eckhoff today accused United Future of backsliding on its promise to support the allocation of Waitaki River water rights to Mackenzie Basin farmers.

"Yesterday, United Future failed to support an amendment to the Resource Management (Waitaki Catchment) Amendment Bill that would have allowed farmers to extract water from the upper Waitaki catchment for the purpose of irrigation and stock," Mr Eckhoff said.

"Every political party, with the exception of Labour, had indicated their support for the farmers' case. If United Future had stood by its assurance the amendment would have been passed.

"United Future's unexplainable flip-flop smacks of a deal with Labour made behind closed doors. It is entirely regrettable that it decided to back down on its word in the interests of a future tradeoff with the Government," Mr Eckhoff 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>>