We see that some commentators are claiming that the New Zealand government have sold out and are picking winners, however according to Not PC there is an important distinction between handouts and tax breaks.
The New Zealand tourism marketing partnership with Warner Bros looks like an innovative proposition and we look forward to seeing how this plays out.
The other "concession" is that the government under urgency are to sort out the lingering problem of defining independent contractors and employees. As this will be only for the film industry, this begs the question why this wasn't sorted out for all industries?
We will probably never know if Warner Bros were genuinely spooked over the actions of the CTU and their Aussie cuzzies or if they were more concerned about how much favour they were able to extract from trading-off governments in competing countries.
On the positive side what we have learned from this fiasco is that unions restrict trade and workers choice. Governments by freeing up labour laws and reducing tax are able to broaden worker's choices and allow businesses to flourish.
Must get on with my casting call...
