Labour education spokesperson and Hutt South MP Trevor Mallard said he was disgusted at the Ministerial appointment of a South Island party hack to the board of Hutt Valley Polytechnic.

Trevor Mallard said the Government had appointed Glen Dillon, a former National Party Otago Southland Divisional chair, to the board.

"This is a ridiculous appointment in several regards," Trevor Mallard said.

"Glen Dillon has no connection with the Hutt and there are ample talented and qualified local people who could be appointed to the board who have a greater interest in the success of the polytechnic.

"She lives in Dunedin and so there are additional costs involved in her attendance at board meetings.

"To top it off, she finished her last political appointment, as chair of Healthcare Otago under a cloud of allegations about her role in cuts to health services and over expenditure on executive salaries and conditions.

"It seems her major qualification for the job is that she has been a long time hack for the National Party.

"I will be asking Tertiary Education Minister Max Bradford to rescind this appointment," Trevor Mallard said.

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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>>