Tolley Anne: Electoral Finance Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Tolley Anne: Electoral Finance Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:644;Page:13549] 
ANNE TOLLEY (National—East Coast) 
: 
 I will speak on a couple of amendments to the Electoral Finance Bill in the name of Christopher Finlayson first of all to clause 53(2)(d) and second to clause 103(1)(b). Both of these clauses are around what the Labour Party terms third parties—that is those people who are taking part in an election who are not political parties or candidates which is the wider group of New Zealanders the people to whom elections actually belong. However the Labour Party has called this group of people third parties and has set some rules around what they can and cannot do. 
In particular those two clauses first of all clause 52(2)(d) deal with the threshold over which a third party would have to register. We had a great deal of discussion about this issue because this is the opportunity for New Zealanders whether they are an individual or with an organisation to take part in an election campaign. In its wisdom the Labour Party—aided by the Greens of course—decided that the threshold of either group spending or individual spending should be $12000. 
Quite interestingly the Electoral Commission disagreed with that decision at the Justice and Electoral Committee. It said that the threshold should be set at $40000. Further the commission had given some very serious consideration as to why we should be setting a threshold. I will refer to the very thoughtful work that the commission did which I have to say was totally ignored by the Government. 
The commission had two reasons for suggesting the level of $40000. First of all that amount would mean that a campaign could be run using say a number of radio stations newspapers or magazines. A group an organisation or an individual could run a reasonable sort of a campaign—nothing major but a reasonable sort of a campaign—for a reasonably small amount of money and not have to go through the hoops of registering as a third party. 
Secondly the commission said that an individual or group spending more than $40000 would be easily recognised by it. It said that that would be easily detected in the community without there needing to be any sort of major bureaucracy hunting through community newspapers and checking up on what groups were doing throughout New Zealand. The amendment in the name of Christopher Finlayson first of all to clause 53(2)(d) changes that threshold to $40000 in line with the recommendation from the commission. 
Then of course we had the spending limit for a third party which is in clause 103(1)(b). Again the commission using that same process and rationale recommended an expenditure cap of between $250000 and $300000 overall. The commission had worked out quite carefully with some research that that amount allowed for say a 2-week campaign by an organisation. For instance the commission gave an example of a campaign that was targeting young people with cinema ads. The commission had a very clear rationale behind its suggestions. They were sensible suggestions and Christopher Finlayson’s amendment addresses those suggestions. 
But that was not good enough for the Greens. The Greens said in the select committee that that sort of expenditure might drown out their voices and they did not think that was reasonable. 
Metiria Turei 
: Don’t tell fibs. 
ANNE TOLLEY 
: That is not telling fibs. The member said that: that it might challenge some of the smaller parties in Parliament who do not spend that amount of money. We had select committee members making decisions on what third parties should be able to spend in an election campaign based on committee members’ ability or inability to raise funds for their own campaigns. I think that is outrageous. I think that the commission actually had a very sensible rationale behind its suggestions around the expenditure threshold and the expenditure caps for third parties. 
It is totally outrageous that a member of a select committee should be using his or her own position to manipulate the levels for third parties and their ability to take part in an election campaign.