Saving local business requires tough measures
The calls to support local business are laudatory but the Government can, and should, take positive action to ensure this happens across the board for all businesses, large and small.
A simple and effective way to achieve this outcome is to immediately place substantial tariffs on all imported goods and services which can be sourced locally.
Also the GST rate on goods purchased offshore should be doubled to deter online offshore purchases.
The justification for this move is quite simply the need to support our local economy which has been ravaged by the coronavirus.
No doubt our trading partners will not be impressed by such a move, but there is an urgent need to do everything we can to help rebuild our economy.
It is also time to rebuild our tourist industry with the accent on quality, not quantity. New Zealand is now, effectively, virus-free, possibly the only country in the world that can claim that distinction. This presents us with an opportunity to attract wealthy tourists to visit our premier attractions and charge premium prices in a uncrowded, virus-free environment.
All that would be required is for the tourists to pass a virus test immediately before departure and also pass a test here on arrival.
Peter Roberts
Greenmeadows
In defence of farming
Andrea Lee suggests Lawrence Yule is biased re his comments on farmers, understandable when he’s been there, done that.
However her comments seem to be based on one photograph, which is a very small shot of NZ farming. She might be interested to know that farmers are leaders in land conservation and tree planting. Unfortunately there is wide belief that this is not the case, due to a quite vigorous campaign to cause a divide between town and country for political purposes.
I suggest she arranges a visit to a few farms and gets the true picture. That said, I will admit that all farmers are not perfect. Unfortunately, these are the cases that are concentrated on by farming critics .
E P Averill
Hastings
British intrusion
After reading your article from the last British Governor, titled “Hong
Kong betrayed by China”, it’s people like Chris Patten who clearly have similar problems to Joe Biden. First of all, just in case he has a lapse of memory, China is a sovereign country.
No matter how much he thinks Britain can interfere in China’s affairs or any other countries, (as his country has done and is still doing to this day), he needs to stand back and look at the underhandedness his country is up to, for example jailing people like Julian Assange for committing no crimes, participating in the illegal wars in Iraq and Syria, the illegal withholding of Venezuela’s gold, etc.
Go home, put your feet up, you people have done enough damage.
J. Owens
Hastings