Rumours rife on Govt’s land access plans

National Party Agriculture spokesman David Carter says rumours are rife that Labour’s plans for land access are set to go before Cabinet tomorrow.

Mr Carter understands the policy amounts to ‘right to roam’ along waterways on all private land, but with exemptions for some owners.

“Farmers have provided excellent public access for more than 150 years. This nonsense will destroy the goodwill between farmers and the public.

“The common practice of people asking farmers for permission to go onto their land has worked well. Farmers can then warn them about any dangers, and farmers can protect themselves from vandalism, theft, harm to livestock, and OSH regulations.

“Most importantly, it lets farmers deny access to people who concern them. Sadly, we are now seeing farmers resorting to violence to protect themselves from trespassers.

“Labour’s policy strengthens the rights of those criminals and puts farmers’ safety and their livelihoods at risk,” says Mr Carter.

© 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>>