3 February 2004 Media Statement

Auckland MPs connecting with small business

A team of MPs and ministers will be visiting Auckland businesses this week as part of the Government's programme of connecting with small businesses.

MPs and ministers taking part are Minister for Small Business John Tamihere, Auckland Issues and Consumer Affairs Minister Judith Tizard, Associate Minister of Social Development and Employment Taito Phillip Field, Associate Finance Minister David Cunliffe, Maungakiekie MP Mark Gosche, Manukau East MP Ross Robertson and list MP Helen Duncan.

The visits by MPs will include businesses as diverse as a helicopter charter company, a cutting-edge fashion house, a software developer, a campervan rental firm, and a toy manufacturer.

The Auckland visits are part of a series of small business visits around the country. Mr Tamihere said the visits were an opportunity for MPs to hear directly from businesspeople about the issues confronting their businesses and what the Government could do to help.

"This is a chance for us to hear the real voice of small businesses – not big business or business lobby groups, but the people who are simply getting on and doing the job of running small businesses. They know best what makes small businesses work, so that's why we want to hear from them."

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>>