Media release 11 May 2004

New tax still a tax

Ministerial pre-Budget promos - most recently for increased export promotion spending - are never accidental, says Business NZ.

"Recycling revenue from the proposed $20 million border security tax on New Zealand trade to increase the size of the Government's overseas trade bureaucracy may reflect good intentions, but it will be interesting to see how well it grows critical export capability," said Business NZ Chief Executive Simon Carlaw.

"Even if the Government should finally decide that it should pay exporters' costs of the new security system it has decided is necessary for New Zealand, the reality remains that many exporters are also importers. They will end up paying the tax along with New Zealand consumers.

"How much more productive it would have been to have had constructive debate with the business community on basic principles and effective security measures before taxing a new dent in New Zealand's international competitiveness."

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>>