It’ll take more than a free sausage to win Wellington Central but it is still scandalous that Labour’s Marion Hobbs is offering to “crank up the barbecue” for local votes, says National MP Annabel Young.

She was commenting on an invitation that Labour candidate Marian Hobbs has distributed in the Te Aro area.

“I will be complaining to the Electoral Commission about Labour’s offer to provide a free barbecue for Wellington voters. If the barbecue is free, it is a clear breach of the prohibition on treating. Treating is a serious breach of the Electoral Act with serious penalties for the candidate involved.”

“If Labour is going to sock the voters with a pay-per-sausage cost, then its invitation is grossly mis-leading.”

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>>