Hobbs nails lid on advert levy coffin

By DITA DE BONI

As hinted at last year, Broadcasting Minister Marian Hobbs has quashed plans for an advertising levy.

"Several months ago I informed the advertising industry that the notion of a levy on advertising was not a goer and [National's] Katherine Rich, if she had been in contact with that industry, would know that," Ms Hobbs said on Tuesday.

"There are a number of inter-related papers covering form, function and funding of broadcasting that are close to resolution.

"They certainly do not involve the imposition of taxes or levies."

Ms Hobbs raised the issue of a possible tax on advertising in an interview with the Business Herald in February last year.

The tax was being considered along with several other revenue-raising opportunities such as a levy on cinema tickets and videos.

"We found such measures would not raise the required finance and would cripple the very creative industries we were trying to boost. Therefore we rejected them."

Jeremy Irwin, of the Association of New Zealand Advertisers, said Ms Hobbs had signalled that she had put a kibosh on the tax before Christmas, but he was pleased to see the comments made public.

"The outcome is a result of a lot of hard work between the industry, Marian Hobbs and officials, and we are particularly pleased with the sensible decision made."