The Independent, 6 September 2000:
Front page:
- Government signals rethink on r + d tax breaks - Cullen said to be studying schemes generated by Ernst & Young in consultation with corporate clients and a submission from Auckland infrastructure company Tradex NZ Ltd;
- Dairy Board pays $328 million for 51% stake in Brazilian milk products company already turning over more than $600
million annually;
- Enza confronts board rebels - new chairman Tony Gibbs, of GPG, refuses to take up cudgels for deregulation, as
demanded by a major grower who is under investigation for possible breach of Enza-biased apple export permits, used for
the first time last season;
- IRD is prosecuting far more small taxpayers than corporates for tax evasion and carelessness, taking most of the $10
million clawed back last year from individuals and small businesses. IRD says that's because there are far more small
than large taxpayers;
- yet another business survey finds evidence of the confidence collapse, this time from Dun & Bradstreet;
Elsewhere in the paper:
- Cullen to investigate concerns that Industry New Zealand - Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton's baby - is relatively
unaccountable. Concerns raised by rival agency Trade New Zealand official at Export Institute dinner;
- yet another government IT bungle - primary production select committee asks whether the Landonline project to digitise
property titles and surveys. The project has blown to $140 million, while its on-going value has slumped to $36 million,
assuming it can be made to work;
- Employers Federation to poll members scientifically to determine truth of ACC claim that most employers are paying
lower premiums than in the brief era of competitive provision;
- investors in the 29 Waltus property syndicates voted overwhelmingly in favour of a merger proposal, despite the
Securities Commission cancelling the offer document last week for being "false and misleading as to a material
particular", the first such cancellation since 1984;
- The Warehouse share price is looking toppy, reckons an analyst at brokers ABN Ambro;
- the two companies behind ill-fated apartment development on the site of the old Globe Hotel, Auckland, are placed in
liquidation;
- Kiwi dairy co-operative is to merge its Mainland Products business with Perth-based Peters & Brownes Foods, creating NZ's fifth largest
- Chris Trotter says Clark should have sacked Turia;
ends
- statistics released in the last week show retail trade remains weak;
-