Business Wants Certainty – But Get Confusion
Business Wants Certainty – But All They Get Is Confusion
The Finance Minister has today created more uncertainty for the telecommunications industry, National’s Communications spokesperson Lockwood Smith said today.
“The Government is all over the place with the recommendations of the Telecommunications Inquiry.
“Less than a week ago Dr Cullen took the highly unusual step of making public statements in response to a drop in the share price of a private company.
“This is what he said last Friday:
“There seems to be some perception the Government is putting in place some form of heavy-handed regime in this area. A conclusion the markets ought to be drawing from the electricity decisions announced this week is that the present Government does not adopt unnecessarily heavy regulatory approaches and it is very unlikely we would do so with respect to telecommunications.”
“Today in Parliament he backed away from that statement – saying Cabinet was yet to make its decisions.
“The business community is crying out for certainty and vision, but all the Government does is confuse things even more.
“Dr Cullen needs to look no further than the full-page advertisement in today’s New Zealand Herald from internet provider I4free seeking some answers and certainty.
“The ad in today’s paper is another plea for the Government to provide some certainty – but Dr Cullen’s answers in Parliament today have done just the opposite.”
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