Cameron Slater is an ugly thug

There's been another appalling development in the PoAL and MUNZ dispute that is completely unacceptable. PoAL management has given Blogger and all round nasty-guy Cameron Slater the private work history of striking workers.

Slater has then chosen to publish the personal information of Cecil Walker in an attempt to discredit his appearance on Radio New Zealand, also allowing many defamatory and hurtful comments that any reasonable moderator would remove.

This is a clear breach of Mr Walker's right to privacy and the right to an opinion, and such a tactic PoAL and Slater have employed should not be tolerated.

Today, the Green party reported:

Ports of Auckland management must immediately investigate how Mr Walker's personal leave history was released," said Ms Roche.

Workers have a right to speak publicly about why they are taking industrial action without companies releasing their private and personal information.

If Ports of Auckland management have allowed this information to be put into the public domain, then you have to seriously question if they have been acting in good faith in their negotiations with the Maritime union.

Questions regarding the management practices of Ports of Auckland need to be addressed by the Mayor and Auckland Council," said Ms Roche

Bomber Bradbury writes:

Publishing the details of a warf worker who was given leave during the terminal illness of his wife is a sick gutter tactic beneath even the blogosphere.

The final eye rolling part of this is that Cameron Slater uses his own personal circumstances with depression as any excuse to throw his toys if they are mentioned, yet he is so gleeful in using others personal circumstances to damn them. Hypocrisy doesn't even begin to define his actions here. He is the wolf who cries boy.

But what makes such an underhanded tactic even worse is that Slater feels absolutely no remorse for what he has done. He thinks he's somehow justified in releasing people's personal details of a private nature in an attempt to silence them. What a cretin!

Here's a video of the ugly Slater trying to defend the indefensible:

ACC's accident?

Yesterday, Radio New Zealand reported:

It has confirmed details of more than 9000 ACC claims, covering about 6000 people, were accidentally emailed to one of its clients last August.

Chief executive Ralph Stewart has apologised for what he calls a regretful and shocking accident, saying clearly the corporation's processes were not strong enough to avoid the mistake and must be reviewed.

He told Checkpoint the names of 137 people making sensitive claims were released. ACC's sensitive claims unit deals with sexual abuse and rape victims.

Mr Stewart says an Auckland staff member accidentally emailed a spreadsheet containing the personal information to a client. He says she is distraught but at this stage her job is not at stake.

How can this be an accident? Attaching a spreadsheet to an email takes premeditation and is not as simple as clicking the wrong button.

And why has it taken eight months since the breach of privacy occurred before people were informed? Perhaps it's another case of hold off until after the election.

What would people think if the private information had been released to somebody like Cameron Slater I wonder? Clearly an independent inquiry is required.

Help save the Sumatran tiger

Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), one of the world's largest producers of pulp and paper, has been caught red-handed with an internationally protected species, ramin, at their main pulp mill in Indonesia.

This violates Indonesian laws governing the logging and trade in this protected species and shows that APP's public claim to have "zero tolerance for illegal timber" is yet more inaccurate greenwash.

Ramin grows in peatland swamp forests - which are also habitat for the endangered Sumatran tiger, only 400 remain in the wild. Inside forest concessions now controlled by APP areas of peatland swamp forest twice the size of New York City have been cleared since 2001 - when logging in ramin was officially banned.

The following major companies around the world are still implicated in APP's illegal -timber scandal, because they have been shown to buy or retail products from APP that contain rainforest fibre: Xerox, Walmart, Countdown, Danone, Collins Debden, Acer, Barnes&Noble, Parragon, and Constable & Robinson. You can send an email to their CEOs right now, demanding the act on this information and stop using APP products.

Join the campaign to stop APP here.

In the Wake of the Rena

The East Coast of New Zealand is an isolated and rural part of the country and what it lacks in economy and population is more than made up for by the beauty of its land and sea. But this coast has a dark story, because In 2010 their lifestyle came under threat.

In the Wake of the Rena investigates the issues and concerns regarding the oil exploration permit issued to Brazilian Oil company Petrobras.

David Cunliffe on Mixed Ownership Model Bill

"And there is Peter Dunne, always the swing vote, but this time he matters.  This is the Peter Dunne epitaph bill.  He will go down in history at the perpetual 150 pound straw in the wind who this time blew the wrong way.  This time who sold out a generation by selling billions of dollars of their birthright.  He can hang his head in shame."

Peter Dunne lying scum

Today, TV3 reported that National's asset sales Mixed Ownership Model Bill passed its first reading in Parliament by one vote:

Labour’s David Cunliffe said the bill should be called the ‘Peter Dunne epitaph bill’ – which ignited Mr Dunne. He challenged everyone to find evidence of him saying he was against the sale of these assets.

Clearly Dunne's bouffant is sucking his brains out. On 4 November, DividedFuture published their pre-election video, in which Peter Dunne states:

Asset sales are on National’s agenda but they cannot be given a blank cheque. Part of United Future as a support partner, is to keep the government on a centre path, no extremes. So we say there are three key assets that should never be sold; Kiwibank, Radio New Zealand and our Water… and that we also need to keep New Zealand Control of all our other assets.

The video misleads the viewer into believing that Peter Dunne was against selling our assets prior to the election. He also more clearly stated as much in at least one major debate prior to people going to the polls.

Much of our water is being included in National’s MOM privatisation and the Māori Council has lodged a claim in the Waitangi Tribunal relating to the rights to the water used by the companies on the block.

Clearly the MOM asset sales would go against what Peter Dunne in DividedFuture promised prior to the last election, that he would not sell our water. His vote for National's asset sales therefore makes him a scumbag liar through and through.

He also clearly stated in an address to Deloittes that he was very aware that many voters were voting for Key despite asset sales, not because of them:

• Asset sales are on National’s agenda, but the jury is very much out on just how comfortable New Zealander's are with this policy.

• My take on it is that Kiwis are not very comfortable at all with it – most certainly not with anything close to open slather.

• The many people who want John Key back in power for the next three years, want him in spite of asset sales and not because of them.

• I sense very strongly that New Zealander's do not want to give National a blank cheque on asset sales.

Peter Dunne cannot be trusted.