Opposition Leader Jenny Shipley has welcomed news that community organisations will be given more time to have a say about the Government's sneaky attempt to stage a tax grab.

Mrs Shipley last week called for the deadline for submissions on the controversial Government proposals to be extended. Revenue Minister Michael Cullen last night capitulated, extending the deadline by a month to the end of August.

"My call for an extended deadline followed two major meetings I held with charities in Wellington and Auckland last week. Many of the charities I spoke with were angry that the Government is considering pilfering money away from charitable deeds, and angrier still that Dr Cullen was trying to sneak the proposals past without adequate consultation.

"This is a victory for those charities, but the real fight still lies ahead.

"Dr Cullen's grindingly insincere claims that Labour supports charities are an attempt to cover up for the fact his Government was caught trying to get its fingers in the till for a tax grab off charities.

"Charities do an enormous amount of good work in society. Labour must stop treating them as just another source of revenue for propping up the People's Banks and subsidising ballet tickets," Mrs Shipley said.

Ends

© 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>>