Child Tax Must Go

"It is child tax, not child support", is how Jim Nicolle, spokesperson for MEN'S CONVOY 2004, describes the current child support system

"It is calculated on gross income using an inflexible formula and mostly ends up in the consolidated fund. It targets a group called 'liable' parents and it takes no account of individual circumstances. The Child Support Act 1991 is focused on collecting money, not on supporting our children, and nothing more than a tax applied to 'liable' parents".

"Parents have had enough of being viewed as walking chequebooks and the rebellion against this unjust and unfair regime will not go away".

"MEN'S CONVOY 2004 - Men on the Move for Child Support Reform will leave Auckland on 29 March and travel throughout the North Island to arrive in Wellington on 31 March. It will be drawing attention to the injustices of the child support system and collecting signatures for a petition calling for repeal of the Child Support Act 1991. It also will collect 'shirts off backs' from parents to deliver to Inland Revenue".

"We are not against paying child support; we just want the system to be fair and reasonable. Inland Revenue say it's their job to be fair. We want to hold them to their word", concluded Nicolle.

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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>>