Security costs should be funded by Govt

National's Customs spokesman Shane Ardern is delighted that finally there are signs the Government has seen sense and is reviewing the proposed $20 million border security tax on exporters.

"The National Party led the campaign in the select committee against this unfair and unjustified security cost being placed on industry," he says.

"The Government has been trying to portray the tax as a trade access cost when clearly it was not.

"I will wait with interest to see which way the Government goes with this issue.

"But, while any turn-around by this Government is welcome, it is ridiculous that so much cost and anxiety has been put on our export industries," Mr Arden says.

© 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>>