ACT Finance spokesman Rodney Hide said today that Jim Anderton's recommitment to a Financial Transaction Tax showed what an extreme threat he is to jobs and to growth.

"A Financial Transaction Tax is economic lunacy. It would be hugely inefficient, inequitable and very easy to dodge. It could never replace GST as Jim Anderton proposes.

"Jim Anderton is a dangerous economic illiterate. Helen Clark should tell voters which part of his extremist economic prescription she will go along with and which part she will reject out of hand. So far, her silence has been deafening.

"The Alliance were embarrassed by this policy last election. It's clear they haven't done any work on their economic policies since then.

"Jim Anderton's announcement that he is still wedded to a Financial Transaction Tax has again confirmed to businesses what a risk he is to have anywhere near government," said Rodney Hide.

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>>