Michael Appleby: Party Leader (04) 934 9389

The Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party is claiming a key role in the election success of the Green Pary.

Special votes last night overturned the 114-vote majority of the sitting MP, Murray McLean, delivering victory to the Green co-leader, Jeanette Fitzsimons, by 246 votes.

The Legalise Cannabis Party leader Michael Appleby says his party helped Ms Fitzsimons to win the seat by not fielding a candidate against her, and by highlighting the cannabis law issue. "The Greens swooped in and harvested the cannabis vote we cultivated", he said.

The Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party expect appropriate weighting to be given to the issue which decided this historic 1999 election outcome.

© 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>>