Responding to news that the Screen
Production Grant handed a $243,000 subsidy to a propaganda film
produced by Chinese state-owned enterprises, New Zealand
Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Louis Houlbrooke
says:
“Taxpayers have all been made complicit in
the promotion of violent Chinese nationalism. This is
sickening news, especially as we observe the Chinese state
suppressing protests in Hong Kong.”
“Taxpayers
should not be forced to fund political propaganda of any
kind. This case is an extreme example, but it’s another
argument against our government’s programme of corporate
welfare for the film industry.”
The film's tagline
is ‘Anyone who offends China, no matter how remote, must
be exterminated.’
Mr Houlbrooke says, “If that
isn’t hate speech, I don’t know what is. Jacinda Ardern,
as Minister of Arts, Culture, and Heritage, should issue a
'please explain' to the Film Commission. Those Chinese
dissidents who chose to live in New Zealand to escape
state-funded incitements to violence deserve an explanation,
if not an
apology."
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