26 November 2004

Dinosaur parties go hand-in-hand into the swamp

The Green Party says that it’s bad news for New Zealand that both dinosaur parties are now backing a dead-end super fund.

“It’s extraordinary that, purely for reasons of political opportunism, National has done a somersault on its opposition to the Cullen Super Fund,” Green Co-Leader Rod Donald said. “What won’t they do to win the Treasury benches?

“While the Green Party opposes National’s plans to indiscriminately cut taxes for corporates and high-income earners, instead of preparing for the rising costs of an ageing population, we still maintain that the Cullen Fund is the wrong way to meet those needs.

“Despite both National and Labour now singing the same song on the superannuation fund, the Green Party will continue to highlight the fundamental flaws in both the justification for the fund and the way it is being operated.

“New Zealanders deserve certainty and security in retirement, but sinking a large proportion of the Government’s surplus into the overseas share market will have the opposite result.

“The Green Party continues to call for the $2 billion per annum that is going into the fund to instead be invested in infrastructure – such as wind generation, solar water heating and upgrading and expanding the rail network – to improve New Zealand’s long-term sustainability and reduce everyone’s cost of living right now.

“The Government should also be ensuring that our young people are highly productive citizens committed to New Zealand – by reducing the cost of tertiary education through a universal student allowance, lower fees and student debt write-off – so the current generation of baby boomers can feel confident there will still be universal superannuation when they retire.”

ENDS

© 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>>