Hon. Georgina te Heuheu National Party Arts & Culture Spokeswoman

1 November 2004

Exactly how much did you say, Minister?

The Government should come clean on exactly how much taxpayer cash is tied up in the troubled River Queen movie, says National Party Arts and Culture spokeswoman, Georgina te Heuheu.

"Reports now suggest that as much as $4.5 million of taxpayer money is tied up in the production. Previously, we all thought the figure was closer to $3 million.

"It's simply nonsense for Arts Minister Judith Tizard to claim that the public does not need to know how much goes into individual projects," says Mrs te Heuheu.

"Whatever happened to so-called transparency and openness in Government?"

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>>