United Future leader, Hon Peter Dunne, has welcomed the decision by Local Government Minister Sandra Lee not to change the current rating regime for churches.

Mr Dunne had earlier raised concern that the Local Government Funding Powers Review would lead to the rating exemption for churches being removed.

However, he has now been advised by the Minister, in answer to a Written Parliamentary Question, that she will not be proposing any changes to the existing rating status of churches as a result of the Review.

"This is welcome news which will be a huge relief to many churches throughout New Zealand."

"Many have contacted me over recent days to express their anxiety that such a change was being considered without their input, and I share their delight that the Minister has now backed off this issue," Mr Dunne says.

Mr Dunne says extending the rating coverage of churches would have caused widespread outrage and would have sent the most perverse of signals to the wider community about the value the Government places on the role of volunteers in this International Year of the Volunteer.

"I am pleased that in this instance the Minister has seen fit to let common sense prevail," Mr Dunne says.

Ends

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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>>