ABC Home | Radio | Television | News | Your Local ABC | More Subjects… | Shop

Email

Aust investigation under fire from Vanuatu's finance industry

By Pacific correspondent Campbell Cooney

Posted August 4, 2008 18:00:00

Vanuatu's finance industry has again criticised the Government's decision to support a major Australian investigation into tax evasion.

Last week Vanuatu's Court of Appeal rejected an application to stop the Australian Federal Police (AFP) from sending any evidence to Australia that its officers gathered in raids on financial institutions in Port Villa in April.

The raids were part of Australia's investigations into tax evasion, in particular the activities of Robert Agius, who has been arrested in Perth.

But Vanuatu's Finance Centre Association chairman Mark Stafford says the court decision does not mean the AFP will get everything it wants.

"The question as to whether any information is released to anybody lies with the Attorney-General of Vanuatu," he said.

The Finance Industry in Vanuatu has continually raised concerns about Vanuatu's decision to allow Australian taxation investigators into the country.

Tags: government-and-politics, tax, world-politics, law-crime-and-justice, police, vanuatu

Gallery

Floodwaters cover Noble Street at Windsor in Brisbane after severe storms swept over the city

SE Qld flooding

Photos of flooded streets and storm damage caused by wild weather overnight.

Opinion

Rodin's Thinker

World Philosophy Day

Children need the capacity to think critically about the world and their place in it.

Feature

A homeless woman asks for money on a Sydney street

Homeless women

A new report predicts homelessness among single women aged over 35 will escalate in the next 20 years.