Smith: Ship-jumping sign of woeful standards

The first step to fixing the problem that has seen 62 foreign fishermen jump ship in New Zealand since November is to hold vessels fishing in New Zealand waters to appropriate standards for their crew, United Future’s Murray Smith said today.

“It is also about decency. We’re not a Third World country and we should not allow Third World practises on land or sea in our commercial sectors,” Mr Smith said.

“Clearly one of the major reasons these men are jumping ship is because of the awful conditions they live and work in,” he said.

“And quite aside from the fact that we shouldn’t allow virtual slave labour in our backyard, we are undermining our own best interests,” Mr Smith said.

“Thousands of New Zealand fishing jobs are going begging in these joint ventures, and quite clearly they are being filled by disgruntled and underpaid foreign nationals.”

He renewed United Future’s call for an end to Third World pay rates for those fishing in New Zealand waters.

“If we even up the pay rates, then there will be more incentive to use New Zealand crew on foreign-owned vessels.”

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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>>