Internal Affairs Minister Jack Elder is only hanging on to his Ministerial office because the Government needs his vote to survive, Alliance leader Jim Anderton commented today.

He says it's a corruption of democratic Government for an obviously incompetent Minister to be kept in his Ministerial post Commenting on lottery grants to a school attended by the children of two Mauri Pacific MPs, Jim Anderton said it was clear Mr Elder would be kept in his job no matter what mistakes he made.

'In any sensible Min istry Jack Elder couldn't possibly survive. He is utterly hapless.

'Although I sympathise with the school involved, some $75,000 has gone to schools in one area from the total of $76,000 of discretionary fund money going to schools.

'What does it say about Mrs Shipley and her Government that someone like Jack Elder can stay on as a Minister?

'Mrs Shipley needs Jack Elder's vote and those of his Mauri Pacific colleagues to hang on to power. It doesn't matter that Jack Elder isn't up to the job, it doesn't matter what he does, because Mrs Shipley thinks it's more important for her to cling to power than to allow the country to have the leadership it needs,' Jim Anderton said.

ENDS

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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>>