An investigation to ensure Commodity Levies Act procedures are as efficient as possible could be worthwhile, Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton said today.

However, Mr Sutton was more cautious about Meat NZ's call to substantially overhaul the Commodity Levies Act.

He said that if Meat NZ had a problem with the administration of the Commodity Levies Act, then the first thing to do would be to look at what caused that problem.

"Is it due to the Government? Is it the necessary checks and balances to preserve the rights of levy payers? Can removing these procedures be done without eroding the proper protection for levy payers?"

Mr Sutton said he was certainly prepared to go through a process of looking at the commodity levy issues raised by Meat NZ.

He said that under the act, levies were set by regulation through an order in council, after votes by levy-payers, not by Parliament.

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>>