Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is:

1. A strong and stable new government working well by Christmas. National and New Zealand First took an interminable nine weeks after the last election to come to a working relationship which didn't work. The Alliance wants a new government to get working straight away.

2. An anti-defection Bill introduced. A new government can introduce legislation to stop the party-hopping once and for all. Any MP leaving their party will have to resign from parliament.

3. Minimum wage increased. By law the minimum wage has to be determined by December. We want to increase it to $7.50 per hour for everyone, including under 20s who currently can be paid as little as $4.20 an hour for doing the same work as over 20s.

4. Interest on student loans removed. I want students who are considering study next year to be able to enrol in confidence that they will not be burdened by ever increasing debt.

5. To send a minister in the new government to Queenstown, Wanaka and Alexandra. There needs to be a minister on the ground to co-ordinate all possible support in partnership with local authorities and the community.

6. A Kiwi Bank. We can get started before Christmas, with a phone call to New Zealand Post from the responsible minister. This will mean more jobs, better services in rural communities, lower interest rates and lower bank charges.

7. A moratorium on the commercial release of genetically engineered foods and on commercial field trials. New Zealanders need reassurance the potential for the release into the wild of genetically engineered organisms must be removed.

8. The Minister of Commerce to commence proceedings against Telecom for its breach of the Kiwi Share. Telecom breached the Kiwi Share agreement by introducing the Telecom 0867 local calling charge for the internet.

9. e-mails sent to all New Zealanders around the world to ask them to come home. We need you here to help start re-building our country.

10. A summit of artists, sports people, writers, film-makers and TV broadcasters.I want to pull these people together to set out a vision for showcasing our culture to ourselves and to the world.

11. To loose another 1.5kg This will get me down to my 1st XV fighting weight.

Visit http://www.alliance.org.nz for more information about the Alliance

© 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>>