15 NOVEMBER 2019

Responding to news that the Screen Production Grant handed a $243,000 subsidy to a propaganda film produced by Chinese state-owned enterprises, New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Louis Houlbrooke says:

“Taxpayers have all been made complicit in the promotion of violent Chinese nationalism. This is sickening news, especially as we observe the Chinese state suppressing protests in Hong Kong.”

“Taxpayers should not be forced to fund political propaganda of any kind. This case is an extreme example, but it’s another argument against our government’s programme of corporate welfare for the film industry.”

The film's tagline is ‘Anyone who offends China, no matter how remote, must be exterminated.’

Mr Houlbrooke says, “If that isn’t hate speech, I don’t know what is. Jacinda Ardern, as Minister of Arts, Culture, and Heritage, should issue a 'please explain' to the Film Commission. Those Chinese dissidents who chose to live in New Zealand to escape state-funded incitements to violence deserve an explanation, if not an apology."

ENDS

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