Canada’s Green Party has provided a welcome counterpoint to Prime Minister Harper’s call for tougher anti-terrorism laws in the wake of a soldier outside the Canadian Parliament.
I asked Graeme Edgeler of the Legal Beagle blog to work out the seat distribution in feasible scenarios involving Hone Harawira winning Tai Tokerau, Peter Dunne losing Ohariu and the Maori Party holding their seats in Te Tai Hauauru and Tamaki Makaurau.
We may eventually wipe out the current strain of Ebola. But until we address the inequalities in the world more epidemics are likely to arise in the poorer countries.
We should be suspicious when 800 police conduct “terror” raids across Australia, but only one person is charged with a relevant terrorism offence (of which we know few details).
One of the reasons National won the election was due to its success in counter messaging – and the way so many media commentators ran with th the right-wing spin.
John Key assured us on RNZ’s Nine to Noon programme yesterday that “In terms of the Fives Eyes data bases… yes New Zealand will contribute some information but not mass wholesale surveillance.”
This week it was good to see our Parliament speaking out strongly against the Israeli attack on a UN-run school refuge in Gaza. Meanwhile our Foreign Minister, Murray McCully continued to prevaricate on Gaza, saying little that could upset Israel.