POLICE SPIN DOCTOR TO MOVE CAMP TO ACC

It could be a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire. Police's communications supremo Michael Player is leaving to join ACC as corporate communications manager. After 13 years with the service, Mr Player will shift a couple of blocks from police headquarters to ACC's head office.

Mr Player has previously worked in public sector communications in the Transport Ministry and the former Social Welfare Department. He was also a parliamentary press secretary to Cabinet minister George Gair in the Muldoon government.

TWEETS ALREADY FLYING ON GAY MARRIAGE DEBATE

The debate on gay marriage has just begun and Conservative Party leader Colin Craig is already speaking out. hoping to lure away some of National’s more conservative supporters. Yesterday he tweeted that it was ‘‘just not intelligent to pretend homosexual relationships are normal’’.

UnitedFuture MP Peter Dunne said he’d support the bill legalising gay marriage to select committee and listen to the debate. ‘‘It’s started – the form letters for and against the Marriage Bill. If you have a view, use your own words, not copy someone else’s,’’ he tweeted.

NZ, AUSTRALIAN AND FIJIAN FOREIGN MINISTERS TO MEET

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully will hold talks with his Fijian counterpart in Australia next week. Mr McCully is travelling to Sydney on Monday. He will hold a regular bilateral meeting with Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr and the pair will also meet Ratu Inoke Kubuabola. Mr McCully said he was pleased to have the chance to engage with his Fijian counterpart and ‘‘to reiterate our support for the important transition underway there’’.

SUBMISSIONS ON CHILDREN TO BE MADE PUBLIC

Details of the thousands of submissions on the Government's Green Paper on vulnerable children will be issued on August 14, Social Development Minister Paula Bennett says.

The responses will help guide the Government's White Paper, which is due to be issued in October. Matters covered include mandatory reporting of child abuse, information sharing, targeted services and responsibility for children's wellbeing.

"The solutions in this [White] Paper are detailed, far reaching and will affect every New Zealander," Ms Bennett said.

- © Fairfax NZ News