Today's 0.5 percent cut in interest rates, on top of a similar cut in September, adds up to one of the largest-ever reductions in interest rates by the Reserve Bank and indicates that Don Brash regards the world economic slowdown as serious, ACT leader Richard Prebble says.

"Countries around the world realise that interest rate cuts by themselves are not enough to ward off a dramatic global slowdown," Mr Prebble said.

"New Zealand needs a tax cut - at the very least a reduction in the top rate immediately from a punitive 39 cents in the dollar to 33 cents.

"Such a tax cut would see static losses of revenue of $300 - $400 million a year but it would send a very powerful signal to investors and successful Kiwis to come home," Mr Prebble 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>>