The Government would only consider an ENZA proposal for a compulsory levy to deal with industry "legacy" costs if ENZA could demonstrate a majority of industry participants supported that proposal, that it was fair to minority players, and was in the public interest, Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton said today.

Mr Sutton said Labour Party policy on agriculture changes required that they meet these criteria.

"Cabinet would have to be convinced that the legacy cost proposal measures up."

ENZA has told growers they will have to pay $4.50 a carton from their returns this year to pay Enza's historic losses. The deduction across the country will pay the estimated $55 million dollar bill for Enza's foreign-exchange losses and the last of the losses on the abandoned Omniport loading system at the Port of Napier.

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>>