Labour health spokesperson Annette King has condemned Health Minister Wyatt Creech for his point-blank refusal to consider compensation for the families at the centre of the baby chest-tapping scandal.

"He is forcing the families to relive the agony by going through the court system.

"It is outrageous for Mr Creech to claim he can't go setting a precedent.

"How many precedents have been set in the past few months, in paying out officials?

"Mr Creech is deputy leader of a Government which has set new benchmarks for golden handshakes.

"He sees nothing wrong with 'compensating' highly paid public officials when they resign their jobs. But he's refusing to compensate families whose lives have been devastated by mistakes in the public health service.

"This Government has given similar answers to the bad-blood Hepatitis C claimants, the former Lake Alice residents and the veterans exposed to Agent Orange and nuclear testing - fight your own battle through the courts.

"Once again National has shown its true colours - heartless, uncaring and self-serving," 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>>