Responding to Michael Cullen’s extraordinary outburst in Parliament yesterday, Ilam MP Gerry Brownlee said that he believed Doctor Cullen knows National’s industrial relations policy is right for New Zealand.

“His behaviour had much more to do with his frustration at knowing any Labour-led Government would have more than half its Caucus drawn from union ranks”, said Mr Brownlee.

“A quick perusal of the Labour list shows more than half those who would come into Parliament in a Labour win have been either Union organisers or executive members.

“What Dr Cullen knows is that his moderate position will not prevail if they should get to Government. His extreme sensitivity to that reality being pointed out by Hon Max Bradford lead to his reaching boiling point yesterday.

“The Council of Trade Unions have written a draconian bill signalling a return to union domination of New Zealand work places.

“It was drafted by Margaret Wilson, number three on Labour’s net list and acknowledged in the House recently by Di Yates to be Labour’s next Attorney General.

“Just watch how many of his colleagues do not support Dr Cullen’s moderate stance over the next few days.” said Mr Brownlee.

Mr Brownlee said that in the last year that unions ran the work place, workers in the Canterbury region arguably lost up to $10 million in wages over the year.

“Dr Cullen knows that economies don’t grow in that environment – unemployment does” said Gerry Brownlee.

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>>