National deplores calls for violence

National Party Leader Don Brash today deplored Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples’s call for Maori to ‘fight to the death’ over the foreshore and seabed legislation and Treaty issues.

Dr Sharples made his comments at the Maori Party’s inaugural annual meeting. He was supported by co-leader Tariana Turia, who referred to ‘fighting to the death’.

“National also opposes the seabed and foreshore legislation, as we believe the beaches and lakes should remain in the hands of all New Zealanders, but this issue must be debated in rational terms,” says Dr Brash.

“There is no place for this kind of threatening, inflammatory language. National condemns any calls for violence either by the Maori Party leadership or against them.

“These kinds of comments raise worrying questions about what would happen if the Maori Party and Labour ever formed a coalition,” says Dr Brash.

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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>>