Labour's health spokesperson Annette King says she is shocked by the tragic news that a state-funded patient at the private Ascot Hospital in Auckland has received the wrong hip replacement operation

"This is a warning to Government to get it right before they steal contracts from the public sector and give them to the private sector," Annette King said.

"I have been raising concern about this contract from its inception. This occurrence raises serious concerns about awarding a public contract to a hospital that hadn't even opened when the deal was signed.

"In light of this situation, the Minister of Health has got to think carefully about whether the Government contract with Ascot should continue," Annette King 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>>