Labour's reneging on Accord will mean expensive compensation

The Prime Minister is deluding herself with her persistent claim that the government is not committed by the West Coast Accord signed by Phil Goff as Minister for the Environment in 1986, according to ACT Forestry spokesman Ken Shirley.

Mr Shirley says Justice Greg's ruling in the High Court in Wellington on 29th September 1995 stated on page 17: "I have no doubt that the West Coast Accord is a contract and that it was intended to be legally binding" (Greg J. CP476/94)

"The subsequent appeal only related to the so called podocarp overcut and in no way impinged on the beech scheme," Mr Shirley said today.

"The subsequent Court of Appeal proceeded on the basis of the High Court finding that the West Coast Accord was a binding contract.

"Signed contracts do exist with timber processors, and firm investment proposals are in place based on the sustainable harvest from these forests designed for production.

"Labour's reneging on the scheme will subject the Government to expensive compensation payments and the loss of many potential jobs.

"Jim Anderton's state subsidised possum plucking projects are no substitute for hundreds of real jobs based on the sustainable utilisation from these designated production forests of the west coast which comprise a tiny proportion of the total forested area," Mr Shirley said.

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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>>