Acting Agriculture Minister Michael Cullen welcomed news that apple export marketer ENZA and apple growers were meeting today to attempt a resolution of a long-running dispute.

Dr Cullen said that both Prime Minister Helen Clark and Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton have said the best solution for this dispute would be for the industry to get together to negotiate a solution.

"The Government's position has always been that its preference is for the commonsense option: That Enza stop deducting the 2002 foreign exchange costs, which many legal opinions say is unlawful; that growers accept the 2001 foreign exchange costs being deducted from this year's returns; and that the two square up their accounts after arbitration and other judicial processes are completed."

Dr Cullen said that ENZA and the growers should be aware that the Government would not step in to bail them out with taxpayers' money.

"Deregulation was no surprise to the apple industry – there had been consultation about this for more than a year."

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>>