The real barrier to a settlement is a hard-right faction within the Washington establishment, which basically sings to the tune of the Israeli government.
The Melbourne result showed that the Greens can do well in a seat where they are seen to have a chance of winning, and when they put in a big campaign effort – a bit like the NZ Greens did when Jeanette Fitzsimons won Coromandel in 1999.
The Greens are running a strong campaign around the message that only by the Greens continuing to hold the balance of power in the Senate will the hard right agenda of an Tony Abbott government be restrained.
Is the NSA subsidizing the GCSB either in money or provision of sophisticated equipment? If it is, this might explain the refusal of Prime Ministers Clark and Key to give out any information as to the cost to the taxpayer of the Waihopai spy station.
Below is the text of an Opinion Piece I had published in Wellington's daily newspaper, the Dominion Post, on 3 May 2013.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/8627516/NZs-reputation-at-stake-over-summit-venue
NZ''S REPUTATION AT STAKE OVER SUMMIT VENUE
OPINION: Sri...
“Under pressure, Mr Key now says he expects there will be a shakeup at the GCSB. But we need much more than that. We need a comprehensive independent inquiry, with public input, to critically examine not only the GCSB’s competence but also its worth to New Zealand.”
There needs to be a thorough inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the death of SAS soldier Leon Smith in Afghanistan’s Wardak province this week, Green Party foreign affairs spokesperson Keith Locke said today.
The essence of this is that this Government is overriding one of the most important laws on our statute book—that is, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act