Alliance Financial Transaction Tax seriously flawed

Martin Poulsen, the National Party candidate for Auckland Central said there were major faults in Alliance tax policy.

“Last week the Alliance announced that it wanted to work with the New Zealand securities industry to issue bonds to help its DFC type bank. This week the Alliances announcement of a Financial Transaction tax would do precisely the opposite”.

“Under an FTT regime, the New Zealand securities and savings industries and most likely the Treasuries of many New Zealand corporates would quickly relocate to Sydney. Avoidance of this ill-conceived tax would be relatively straightforward”.

“However, lost would be the future possibility of New Zealand being a banking and settlements centre with the advantages of low costs and high quality staff. So would significant business tax dollars”.

“This would reinforce Sydney’s dominance as a financial centre and the New Zealand public would pay more for banking services”.

Poulsen continued, “The Alliance seems to be in denial over the reality of the international mobility of capital. Worryingly the Alliance does not understand the benefit of liquid capital markets. Their claims that this tax would raise as much as GST are way off target”.

“The Alliances Financial Transaction Tax is a discredited scheme and its proposal lacks a serious understanding of NZ business. It would add a further risk premium to New Zealand capital markets”, said Martin Poulsen.

© 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>>