Brash move on 4 Weeks Leave welcome; Kiwibank u-turn urged

Progressive leader Jim Andeton today welcomed the news that the National Party has reversed its previous opposition to extending to workers a minimum of four weeks' annual leave, and has urged National to also reverse its commitment to sell Kiwibank.

"Four weeks' annual leave is good for working families trying to juggle their employment and family responsibilities. It is a policy that encourages working people to stay in the workforce, and out of welfare, when the children come along.

"I would urge National to also see reason on Kiwibank and now also reverse its policy to sell Kiwibank, the nationwide New Zealand-owned bank offering low-cost services to communities long neglected by the big foreign banks," the Progressive leader said.

"If Don Brash continues to adopt good progressive policies, I've got a Progressive Party membership form that I'd be happy to send him," Jim Anderton said.

Matt Robson's Progressive Private Member's Bill on Four Weeks' Annual Leave was first put before Parliament two years ago.

When the law was changed a year ago to introduce four weeks leave, a big Parliamentary majority supported it, including Labour, the Greens and New Zealand First, but excluding National.

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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>>