Opinion: a levy on incoming tourists should be seen not as a revenue-grabbing tax, but as user pays congestion charge, writes Tim Hazledine.

Since when is a border tax on an export industry a good idea, asked Brian Fallow in the New Zealand Herald last Friday.

I can answer that. March 4, 1985. That's the day the NZ dollar was freely floated on the foreign exchange market. Before that, we had a fixed exchange rate along with controls on imports to protect domestic import-substituting industries.