A renewed challenge on the Winebox affair has opened in the High Court at Auckland today.

Lawyers acting for New Zealand First leader, Winston Peters, are calling for the Court to overturn the findings of the Commission of Inquiry into the Winebox Tax evasion/avoidance allegations.

Mr Peters was initially refused after a High Court judgement ruled that Inquiry head, Sir Ronald Davison’s findings could not be challenged. This ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeal in November 1998.

Much of the evidence before the Court will centre on the Magnum transactions, which it is alleged detail Tax Credit deals between European Pacific, a New Zealand listed company, and the Cook Islands government. The Magnum transactions it is alleged add up to tax evasion denying New Zealand Revenue around $2 million in lost tax revenue.

© 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>>