10 June 1999

English 0, England 2

Labour deputy leader Michael Cullen says Finance Minister Bill English needs to do some more research before issuing facile statements on tax matters.

"He is now reduced to praising Tony Blair and Gerhard Schroder for an apparent abandonment of high tax policies.

"Mr English needs to realise that in both Britain and Germany, state revenue as a proportion of GDP is far higher than the New Zealand Labour Party is proposing. And neither has any plans to engage in the kinds of cuts to social spending which would be required to reach New Zealand levels of taxation.

"Second, Mr English ought to know that the Blair Government closed a number of tax loopholes which has resulted in an increase in revenue as a proportion of GDP. Labour already closed those loopholes in New Zealand in the 1980s.

"And in case Mr English wants to somehow claim a re-match, he should consult his own 1999 Budget documents. They show that under Labour's policy of pre-funding areas of social expenditure such as New Zealand Superannuation, long term tax rates will be lower than under National's cross fingers and hope approach.

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>>