Crucifying exporters
It sometimes intrigues me how ministers and councillors make decisions, what logic they use. The latest curiosity is the rate adjustment in the Far North; a 163 per cent rate increase for forestry.
I can understand that retail council members in the Far North are finding things tough, but why crucify productive export earners?
I am a long-term forester. In early times I had a 25-acre block of radiate pine in Peria. In the end we withdrew, purely because of the Far North District Council's excessive rates.
I can't believe that now, all this time later, they are about to once again crucify the industry. What is the logic? With huge tracts of empty land, one would believe the cash-hungry council would welcome such enterprise.