6 May 2004

Compliance costs stifle forestry growth

Major investors are looking elsewhere as the Government's compliance costs suffocate the forestry industry, says National's Forestry spokesman, Brian Connell.

He is commenting on a warning from the chairman of Carter Holt Harvey, John Maasland, that rising energy costs and red tape could topple plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in New Zealand.

"Both the ERA and the RMA make doing business unnecessarily difficult, and our core industries are starting to feel the bite," says Mr Connell.

"This, coupled with an increasingly uncertain energy supply and the strong kiwi dollar has proven to be a major headache for the forestry sector, New Zealand's 4th largest export earner, which brings in $3.42 billion a year.

Mr Maasland is seeking assurances that proposed changes to employment legislation will not harm Carter Holt Harvey.

"The Government should stop bowing to its union mates and start working to encourage this kind of investment instead of hampering it.

"We cannot afford to continue down a path that will see a sector as vital to our economy as forestry go down the drain," says Mr Connell.

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>>