Labour strongly endorses the view of the Forest Owners Association chief executive Sir Ron Carter that New Zealand airports should continue to have separate biosecurity checks.

Labour's forestry spokesperson Pete Hodgson said that amalgamating biosecurity checks with customs and immigration services would put all primary production, including forestry, at unnecessary risk.

Biosecurity is arguably the most important security issue New Zealand faces. Labour will not amalgamate services for the convenience of the airline industry. Biosecurity is a specialist service requiring specialist staff. It needs to remain focussed, and not be blurred by visa checks and searches for whiskey.

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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>>