Transcript of Prime Minister Jenny Shipley's comments in a stand-up press conference on the latest Household Labour Force Survey

Avondale College, Auckland, Thursday 4 November 1999

"New Zealanders can be confident that there are plenty more jobs coming. I'm very proud of the fact that this is an economy in which hard working New Zealanders can make progress.

Maori unemployment "It's very high, but it's down from 18.2 per cent to 14.8 per cent. It's certainly trending in the right direction.

"You can only do this when you've got economic growth. National has been able to deliver consistent growth which is really getting unemployment down.

"We are now nearly the same as Ireland, lower than Australia, and lower than Finland. It's a very good result, which shows we are entering a job rich recovery.

"With low interest rates, tax rates coming down, and the Employment Contracts Act, we've got just the right mix to get the new jobs.

"There were 4,000 new jobs in the last three months alone. I ask New Zealanders to vote for a party that shows real performance like that rather than one that merely indulges in rhetoric. National's got a really good record."

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>>