English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:648;Page:16886] 
3.  
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Leader—National) 
 to the  
Minister of Justice 
: Is the Electoral Finance Act 2007 working as the Government intended; if so why? 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 Yes; and as with all new legislation there is a bedding-down period during which the legislation is implemented. 
Hon Bill English 
: Is the Minister aware that the Department of Internal Affairs has had to issue guidelines to ministerial staff and the Minister’s office to tell them what they should take into account in drafting a press release so they can ensure that the press release is not an election advertisement; and has she seen those guidelines? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: No but I believe the department will be being very cautious as we would expect it to be. 
Hon Bill English 
: Is the Minister aware that the guidelines issued to ministerial staff mean they must take into account the following when they are drafting a press release: references in the communication to the election references to MPs or their party’s policies for that election and what they will do if elected or re-elected formatting or branding of the communication in any way similar to the party’s own election material and the extent to which the communication criticises other parties or candidates; and can she assure the House that none of the press releases issued by ministerial offices breach any of those criteria? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: In relation to the first part of the question no; but it does back up my original answer that the departments are being very cautious as we would expect them to be. 
Hon Bill English 
: Am I correct in hearing that the Minister cannot give the House an assurance that Ministers’ offices are acting according to these guidelines and if that is the case what does she intend to do about it as the large number of press releases that appear on the Beehive website do include references to the election references to party policies criticism of other parties’ policies and so on? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: I would give everybody the same advice that the Department of Internal Affairs was giving: to be very cautious and careful in terms of what they are doing. 
Hon Bill English 
: What are MPs and party campaigners to make of advice from the Chief Electoral Officer that any telephone canvassing that mentions the name of a candidate or a party constitutes an election advertisement and that at the end of that telephone call the person making the call has to say: “This call has been authorised by the financial agent.” when Parliament has passed a law that specifically exempts polling and telephone canvassing from the Electoral Finance Act? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: My answer is that the law that was passed by Parliament is the law that should be upheld. 
Hon Bill English 
: Can the Minister confirm that the law that was passed by Parliament is a law under which no one knows yet whether it is legal to display a party logo—and we might not find out until after the election—specific exemptions for telephone canvassing appear not to apply in reality and the law requires all billboards now to be expensed as if the timber was all brand new even if it has been used for several elections in a row; and what are MPs to make of that kind of nonsense? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: I would say to MPs that they should take very very little notice of that member because yesterday in this House he claimed that the logo on the ballot paper would have to be authorised. He claims he knows an awful lot about the Electoral Act. He would know then that it would not have to be authorised because the Electoral Act 1993 requires the logo to be on the ballot paper.