The Green Party has welcomed today's November 27 election announcement saying its key Coromandel electorate campaign is well advanced and it's on track to pass the five percent nationwide party vote threshold.

Co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said the party had been preparing the Coromandel campaign groundwork for two years, had been door-knocking for months, had completed two pamphlet drops to every letter box in the electorate and already had its billboards at the printers.

"We've been waiting for the announcement, we've got everything in place and we're ready to go," Ms Fitzsimons said.

"We have a two-pronged strategy - to win Coromandel and to top the five per cent party vote threshold, and we are increasingly confident we can do it.

"We will be promoting all our topflight candidates to highlight the need for teamwork in Government, in contrast to the superficial presidential campaigns of the other parties."

Co-leader Rod Donald said voters were sick of the old parties and were looking for the fresh approach to politics offered by the Greens.

"This election is not just about getting rid of National. New Zealand must have a new Government with talent, vision and commitment."

The Greens need to be in the next Parliament to push the Labour Government on crucial issues such as genetic engineering and organics, protecting the remaining public native forests, confronting the failure of free trade, making our cities sustainable, and revitalising provincial towns and rural areas, Mr Donald said.

Mr Donald said that with the election planned for November 27, the party looked forward to the opportunity to present its positive policies for a Green future in New Zealand.

"What we lack in campaign resources, compared to the big parties, we make up for in passion and commitment - qualities that voters believe in."

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>>