Jenny Shipley's increasing desperation has goaded her into misrepresenting Labour policy again, says Labour agriculture spokesperson Jim Sutton.

"Mrs Shipley told her usual clutch of portable supporters in Dunedin at the weekend that there was 'zero' in Labour's budget for irrigation projects," Mr Sutton said.

"In fact Labour would have at least two significant funds, a Local Economic Assistance Fund and a sum under the control of the Minister of Agriculture for sustainable land management initiatives. These would include community projects designed to make farm businesses financially sustainable.

"The sustainable management fund would be similar to the FARM (Facilitating Action on Risk Management) Partnership programmed Labour announced in 1990, with funding of $10 million, but axed by National. The maximum funding available for a project would be much greater this time.

"Actual spending will depend on which proposals make a strong case for funding. But Labour in Government will be investing significantly more than the token $1 million this Government has allowed for irrigation studies.

"It is possible that irrigation projects will also be supported by Labour's Local Economic Assistance Fund, which is designed to help reverse regional decline. Again the level of support will depend on proposals received, but the LEAF scheme is likely to kick-start some major infrastructural developments.

"National's $1 million funding was forced from it by a charitable trust that offered $1 million on condition that the Government matched it. Typically, the Nats try to claim the credit for someone else's initiative.

"Mrs Shipley is full of big talk now, swanning around rural New Zealand in her air-conditioned mobile campaign HQ. But when she has been pushed to put her money where her mouth is, she has come up short every time."

© 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>>