Labour leader Helen Clark today applauded Australian Prime Minister John Howard's initiative in ringing President Clinton to make strong representations on behalf of his country's lamb exporters.

"Mr Howard has gone the extra mile for the Australian farmer. Will Mrs Shipley go the extra mile today?" Helen Clark asked.

"No one expects prime ministerial phone calls to work miracles. It is in the end, however, a prime ministerial duty to make representations to other countries in matters affecting the national interest.

"The impending decision by the United States on moves to cut back imports of Australasian lamb certainly fits into that category.

"If Mrs Shipley has not already made the call she should pick up the phone now," Helen Clark said.

© 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>>