English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:646;Page:15129] 
5.  
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Leader—National) 
 to the  
Minister of Justice 
: Has she been advised of a joint statement from the Chief Electoral Officer and the chief executive of the Electoral Commission stating that election advertisements promoted by financial agents must contain a statement setting out the name of the financial agent and the full address of the place where that person usually lives? 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 Yes it was issued on 7 March and can be found on www.elections.org.nz. 
Hon Bill English 
: Does the Minister believe that Government policy intended that authorisation statements on election publicity should be visible clear and legible; if not why not? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: The Parliament decided what would be in the Electoral Finance Act and every party in this House needs to abide by it. 
Hon Bill English 
: Has the Minister seen copies of the large billboards that the Greens have put up around the country—including the one I am holding up—that contain an authorisation statement written so small it can hardly be seen and does she believe that this conforms with Government policy on election advertising? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: It is not my role to decide whether it is appropriate and I do not intend to give an opinion as to whether it is appropriate. It is up to the Green Party to ensure that it abides with the Electoral Finance Act. 
Hon Bill English 
: Does the Minister have some sympathy with the Green Party when it is required like every other party to conform with the ridiculous requirement that a financial agent has to put his or her residential address on a billboard and does she agree that to make this billboard legal the staff person from the Green Party has to put his or her residential address on it; why should that person have to do that and when will she admit that her policy is stupid and impractical for—and probably dangerous to—the individuals concerned? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: This Parliament decided what would make up the Electoral Finance Act. Every time this question is asked the National Party forgets that in this House there is still a democracy and the majority vote wins. 
Hon Bill English 
: Has the Minister seen the application by the Public Service Association (PSA) to become a third party which includes material where the association’s financial agent who is a private citizen has put down the PSA’s building address as what the agent believes is the correct address when in fact Ms Pilott will have to put down her own residential address of an apartment or a suburban street and every New Zealander who looks at PSA material will know where she lives and be able to track her down and do some of the crazy things that all sorts of people do these days? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: No I have not. But I know that many members in this House actually have their name and address in the phone book. 
Hon Bill English 
: Why is it Government policy that every billboard newspaper ad TV ad T-shirt and balloon that is put out by any political party or third-party campaigner in election year has to include the home address of an individual New Zealander—the place where his or her partner and children live—and why did the Government believe that that is the best way to frame our election law to put individual New Zealanders at risk by identifying their place of residence for everybody? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: I am afraid I will sound like a cracked record— 
Hon Phil Goff 
: No you’re not. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Yes I am very very sorry but I will sound like a cracked record. This Parliament decided that that is what the Act would be. 
Hon Bill English 
: Will the Minister support an amendment to the legislation that would allow the financial agents of political parties and third parties to put an organisational or corporate address on election publicity or will the Labour Party insist on its ridiculous and vindictive policy that anyone who wants to campaign against it has to have his or her residential address made public while the Labour Party deliberately broke this law with the publicity it put out this year? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Of course Mr English is well known for his selective memory. In this Chamber no less than 2 weeks ago my colleague held up the photograph of Mr Key’s DVD which he issued this year at a fair in Auckland—[ 
Interruption 
] One of his members did. There was no authorisation no name and no address on the DVD. So it is very good to come in here and point the finger at the Labour Party but if the member wants to take this issue seriously instead of throwing insults around I say to him he should put up an amendment and see what this Parliament thinks because at the end of the day it is this Parliament that will decide. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I wonder whether we could clarify just what the Minister meant by that. Can we get an indication whether if Mr English were to seek leave to introduce a bill amending the Electoral Finance Act the Government would in fact support that leave. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: As the member well knows it is not for the Speaker to try to understand what the questions or answers are or to give an opinion on them. 
Question time interrupted.