New Zealand First Defence Spokesperson, Ron Mark, has called for the Minister of Defence to dock the pay of all those officers who authorised and attended the glitzy Masters of Business Seminar in Auckland and not take money from the Defence training budget.

“Cutting $200,000 from the Defence’s personnel training budget will only punish the troops. It will do nothing at all to teach those officers responsible for squandering taxpayers funds a lesson.

“It now seems that if soldiers make mistakes, they get charged and fined. If officers offend, the state pays their dues from money intended to train soldiers.

“What seriously concerns me is a new culture emerging in our Armed Forces that sees money poured into enhancing the life and training of officers whilst junior ranks struggle on meagre wages and inadequate training.

“I am thoroughly disappointed in the ‘officers first’ culture that now appears to be endemic in New Zealand’s Defence Force,” said Ron Mark.

© 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>>