Wednesday, 1 December 2004

Smith: UF achieves results; Nats simply talk

While National has tried to embarrass the Government over its supposed inactivity in trying to resolve the problems at the Culverden Care Retirement Centre, United Future has been working for many months towards a solution, United Future MP Murray Smith said today.

In the House yesterday, National's Judith Collins criticised the Government for failing to take action, but only managed to show her lack of understanding of the limitations on the role of the Executive (i.e. Cabinet members) being involved in civil disputes.

Culverden's chief executive, Ian Anderson, has been accused of trying to force elderly residents to either pay grossly inflated weekly charges or accept the sale of their homes in the Mangere, Auckland, retirement village back to his company for a fraction of their initial purchase price.

"I became involved with the Culverden residents' group in March, a month before the Minister appears to have become aware of the problems and a full eight months before National suddenly woke up to the issue and saw some mileage to be gained.

He said he had regularly corresponded and discussed the situation with the residents' committee and had met with the committee and its lawyers to "brainstorm" possible solutions other than court action.

Part of his assistance, Mr Smith said, was to involve Graham Miller, the Covenant Trustee Company chief executive, who has vast experience with retirement villages and provided excellent advice.

Mr Smith said that he and Mr Miller had recommended an approach to the Securities Commission and Mr Smith had assisted in preparing the submission to the commission that successfully resulted in a commission inspector being appointed to investigate the village's operations.

Mr Smith said that the Securities Commission had also been asked to examine whether the documentation entered into by the residents amounted to a contributory security under the Securities Act. If so, Culverden would have had to register a prospectus and make other disclosures which, Mr Smith understands, it failed to do.

Earlier documentation issued by Culverden had been ruled by the Privy Council to amount to a "participatory security", breaching the Securities Act requirements. However, the issue of it being a contributory security had not been addressed and the documentation had since been changed.

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>>