Bradford Reveals Military Spend-Up Under Green Pressure

Max Bradford provided information on the military spending $40,000 on a business conference only because he was forced to release the information, said Green Co-leader Rod Donald.

Rod Donald asked Mr Bradford a parliamentary question asking how much the military spent on the Masters Of Business Conference held in May this year and has yet to receive a response, due earlier this week.

“The only reason Max Bradford has blown the whistle on this extravagance is because I put it in his mouth,” said Rod Donald. “The Minister has known about this since July 28.”

Rod Donald said the extravagance was completely unwarranted and made a mockery out of claims by the military that they were short of cash.

“$40,000 is a fortune to most cash-strapped and worthwhile organisations,” he said. “A play centre would have to hold a lot of cake stalls to raise the kind of money the military just blew.

“This outrageous waste of taxpayers money eclipses even the $6,000 WINZ wasted on the same conference. Perhaps Roger Sowry and Peter McCardle should take a lesson from Bradford and trim the extravagance of the WINZ CEO,” he said.

“The Green Party do not believe that our defence forces need offensive capabilities like fighter jets and would aim to cut the current budget by $800 million,” he said.

“Given their irresponsible expenditure a proper audit would probably reveal a number of areas where even more sensible savings could be made.”

ENDS

© 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>>