English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Volume:641;Page:11561] 
4.  
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Leader—National) 
 to the  
Minister of Justice 
: When under the Electoral Finance Bill does the regulated period commence in a year in which Parliament is due to expire? 
Hon MARK BURTON (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 1 January. 
Hon Bill English 
: Why does the Government believe that it is necessary to change the period in which election advertising and opinion will be regulated from the current 3-month period which has been in place for decades to a period that could be up to 11 months—that is most of an election year? 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: Because whilst the Government was looking at a range of matters including the rorting of the electoral system by the National Party and its secretive financial supporters it looked at the experience of similar jurisdictions such as the Canadian and that of the United Kingdom and settled on that period which is longer than the Canadian but briefer than the United Kingdom’s and it seemed an appropriate and reasonable period on balance. 
Lynne Pillay 
: What type of behaviour is the bill intended to address? 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: That is a good question. It intends to protect our electoral system from the sort of behaviour we saw in the 2005 election campaign—from secretive wealthy interest groups seeking as they did to subvert and spend up large particularly in the final weeks of the campaign period on behalf of the National Party as this letter to Mr Key quite clearly makes clear. The Exclusive Brethren sought to “launch a $1 million very extensive election campaign with the sole goal of getting party votes for National”. But they did it whilst trying to subvert our electoral system. 
Hon Bill English 
: Can the Minister explain more fully his reasons for picking 1 January as the beginning of the regulated period when the United Kingdom is the only developed country that picks a long regulated period; and why did he not choose Canada which he has mentioned whose regulated period is actually 6 weeks not 11 months? 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: The problem with the member’s approach is that he is taking isolated pieces of information. For instance the member neglects to mention in his question that Canada also enables less than 1 percent only of relative spending—relative to party for third-party expenditure—during that regulated period. The UK on the other hand allows 5 percent although it also has the burden of retrospectivity for those who might engage in election campaigning. So it is 365 days regardless of when that campaign is called not just in the election year in the fifth year as it would be in the UK. In New Zealand we have settled on the period from 1 January and on 2.5 percent of the amounts allowed per party. That is about a reasonable mid-point between those two comparable jurisdictions. 
R Doug Woolerton 
: What contributory factors were evident that required the Government to bring the Electoral Finance Bill into the House? 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: There are almost too many to mention but not the least of them followed on from the letter I showed the House in my previous answer. It is the sort of material that was produced as part of that million-dollar campaign which clearly sought and intended to bring about a particular election result while getting around our electoral law. I do not think New Zealanders want a bar of that sort of behaviour in the future from the National Party and its mates. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Is the Minister concerned that his Government’s failure to support restrictions in the Electoral Finance Bill on anonymous donations and on donations from secret trusts may well see the food industry pouring donations into the National Party now that the National Party has announced it will oppose any regulatory measures to reduce obesity in New Zealand children? 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: There is no doubt that one of the good arguments for a longer regulated period is that regardless of how many of the National Party’s cronies it has pouring money into its coffers the money will be regulated and the financial limits will apply in order that the election campaign is fought on a contest of ideas not bank balances. 
Hon Bill English 
: Can the Minister confirm that groups such as anti-obesity campaigners will next year face at least a 10½-month period in which what they can say how they say it and what they spend on it is heavily regulated while he and the incumbent Government will be subject to virtually no restrictions at all in public spending on political messages? 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: No I cannot confirm that any more than I can the sort of misleading implications that the member tried to circulate in his taxpayer-funded letter as he put disquiet around the countryside. Those organisations that seek to be direct participants in the election process in order to bring about the result of either the election or non-election of a particular party or candidate will be constrained by the same sorts of conditions that the member and I have debated at length in this House. Those organisations going about their education and public information activities will not be so constrained. 
Hon Bill English 
: Can the Minister confirm that it is Labour’s policy that a person who is confirmed on nomination day 5 or 6 weeks before the election as a constituency candidate will be deemed to have been a candidate for the previous 9 months of the regulated period and that the Government will then retrospectively apply these rules to all the political activities of that person right through the election year even though for most of that year he or she may not have known he or she would be a candidate? 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: Much of what the member describes is in the current legislation. Secondly it would depend on which year in the 3-year cycle that the election actually took place. 
Hon Bill English 
: Well in which year in the election cycle does one hold elections if it is not an election year? Does the Minister know that we hold elections in election year? 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Was that a question? 
Hon Bill English 
: Can the Minister confirm that there are two reasons why the Labour Government has chosen 1 January as the start of the regulated period which will then be 10½ months the first reason being that the Labour Party is having trouble raising money and the second reason being that it does not want National to run another billboard campaign? 
Hon MARK BURTON 
: Firstly I am not responsible for the fund-raising activities of the Labour Party so I cannot speak for that. But as for the billboard campaign I see that the member’s supporters already have billboard campaigns running—I do not know whether those are taxpayer funded like the last lot were. I say to the member that I cannot understand why he is so afraid of a level playing field where the contest of policy and the contest of ideas will have to win out. Perhaps it is because the National Party has neither ideas nor policies.