Carter John: Electoral Finance Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Carter John: Electoral Finance Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:644;Page:13472] 
JOHN CARTER (National—Northland) 
: 
 First I have to give one little bit of advice. The best thing the Minister can do if he wants to make a contribution is not make one. That is the best contribution because I am certain that if all of us around here took a bet as to what he said none of us would know. I am certain there are people outside who are listening who would not know either. I will concentrate on clause 5(2)(da) of the Electoral Finance Bill which is about editorial material. I will read out part of a very fine editorial that appeared in the  
Northland Age 
 written by the very good editor one Peter Jackson who— 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: I’ve seen his movies. 
JOHN CARTER 
: Yes exactly. He is a very talented guy. Peter writes this: “Whatever becomes of the government’s attempt to re-write this country’s electoral laws it has demonstrated that it is interested only in its self-preservation. There is nothing apart from moves to limit the ability of political parties to accept anonymous contributions to their election spending that offers any benefit to anyone in New Zealand apart from those parties that are currently in power and those that will assume power in the future. That is the most alarming aspect of all that Helen Clark’s government and its allies”—that is the Greens and New Zealand First—“care nothing for the future of the people they supposedly serve or indeed the future of their own parties. Whatever else she might be Helen Clark is not stupid. She knows obviously that proposals to severely limit the extent to which third parties and even opposition parties already in Parliament can campaign will give the incumbent administration a massive advantage. She knows too that one day perhaps as soon as next year Labour will lose a general election and that the rules she now seeks to put in place will favour the party that replaces it. And she doesn’t care. The entire thrust of what is now proposed is aimed at perpetuating her prime ministership end of story. There can simply be no other interpretation.” Mr Jackson goes on: “The minor parties that support this legislation have attempted to defend their position by decrying the past funding of ‘right wing’ parties by big business much of it covert but miss the point deliberately one suspects. They are present in Parliament courtesy of MMP an electoral system which was foisted upon this country on the basis that it represented a more democratic process than that which it replaced. And now those minor parties are using their electoral success to shut the gate on those who might aspire to follow them into Parliament. It hasn’t taken long for the often disproportionate power that has fallen into their hands via a ridiculous electoral system to corrupt them and to persuade them that their continued presence is more important than any genuine expression of the people’s will.” So writes the editor of the  
Northland Age. 
Peter Jackson also makes a number of other points. I raise that—and Mr Jackson can continue under this law writing that—because who else will be able to make those sorts of comments once this bill becomes law on 1 January? No one else will be able to make those comments. People will not even be able to write a letter to the editor on behalf of someone who may be standing or on behalf of some political party. They will not be entitled to do that. They will be breaking the law and it will be interpreted as somebody out there deliberately supporting a political party which means that these people here tonight listening should be afraid. If they want to express a view in their local paper they will be breaking the law. 
I want to let the people of this country know how serious this bill is. This is an absolute restriction on the freedom of speech in this country and if people ever thought that one day we would have to be here defending the democratic right of people in this country to express their views well I say to them that we have got to that stage. The problem is that the Labour Government and its allies in New Zealand First and the Green Party has got to the stage where it thinks it does not matter. But it is just a start; we should be afraid.