Government wants it both ways when it comes to tax

United Future Revenue spokesperson Gordon Copeland has expressed amazement that, whilst rejecting his call to index the income tax bands for inflation, Government has decided to index the duty on petrol and on diesel for inflation from 2006.

“Finance Minister Michael Cullen has consistently resisted my call for indexation when it means returning to taxpayers the extra tax that he should not be collecting from them in the first place, but at the same time approves of indexation when it is in favour of the Consolidated Fund!

“I will leave it to New Zealanders to draw their own conclusions about whether this does or does not represent consistency and fair play,” said Mr Copeland.

© 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>>