The Green Party looks set to achieve its two election aims of winning Coromandel and passing the five per cent threshold, Green co-leader Rod Donald said today.

Co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons this week won Coromandel by 246 votes after special votes put her ahead of National's Murray McLean who led by 114 votes on election night. On election night, the Greens polled 4.88 per cent in the national party vote.

Special votes counted so far indicate the Greens should pass the five per cent mark, Mr Donald said.

"We have said since we started our election campaign several months ago that our aim was to win Coromandel and pass the five per cent mark and it looks like we're just about there," he said.

Rod Donald: 025 507 183

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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>>