Woolerton R Doug: Electoral Finance Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Woolerton R Doug: Electoral Finance Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:644;Page:13543] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 One of the things that has concerned me about this debate is that we have had Mr Bill English going around this country talking about how much money different political parties spend out of the public purse. He has pointed the finger at New Zealand First and the Labour Party in particular knowing full well that the biggest spender of public funds is the National Party. In total the National Party has spent each year something in the vicinity of $7 million of public money. 
Ron Mark 
: How much? 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: It has spent $7 million. The story with regard to that and what is wrong about it is that Mr English is going around telling the public— 
Paula Bennett 
: We didn’t win. Money obviously doesn’t buy an election. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: If Ms Bennett is worried about this issue I cannot help that. But the fact is that her deputy leader has been going around this country talking about the money being used to run our electorate offices. That is what he is talking about. 
Because the National Party has the second-highest number of people in this House and it does not have any Ministers it spends the most money. But Mr English is not saying anything like that. He is not explaining how that works. He is not telling people like John Boscawen that that is how the job works and those people are ignorant of these matters. Mr English is perpetuating an incorrect statement. The National Party is then going to its friends at the  
New Zealand Herald 
 which is further perpetuating these wrong statements and misleading the public. 
What I will talk mainly about today and what I had to leave off talking about yesterday is the Minister’s invitation to clarify what MPs do. It needs clarification. 
Rodney Hide 
: You still don’t know Doug? 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: I know what Rodney does. I know that he walks up Queen Street with duct tape over his mouth which he should actually do more of. I liked that. We know that he goes on  
Dancing with the Stars 
. We know that he is not here very much. We know that he rarely turns up at select committees. But apart from that I do not know much more about what he does. 
I certainly know what MPs do but we are actually talking about defining what MPs do. People should know that when they expect MPs to turn up in different parts of the country all in the same week those MPs will have to expend some energy and jet fuel and will have to take a plane to get there. Hence MPs have free air travel. 
MPs have to stand up on a platform and tell people what their parties are about. MPs have to explain the policies of their particular party. In the case of ACT member Rodney Hide he is particularly blessed because that will take him only a couple of minutes and he can get back to eating sponges and drinking soda water. But in New Zealand First’s case explaining our policies takes a wee while. We need to define how that is done. We need to define and to put in place explanations that give effect to that process and reflect that we are indeed needed to go around this country. MPs are invited to explain what we do and what we intend to do. We have to be able to do that without it being called electioneering. 
Of course there comes a time when we do go out and electioneer. Those situations can usually be defined quite clearly by our asking for votes. We go out and say clearly to people: “We want you to vote for us because we think we can do this this and this better than other parties.” When we are doing that we are clearly electioneering. But if we are not asking for a vote then I suggest to members that we are going about our normal business. 
This has been a problem ever since I have been in Parliament. It has been the subject of debate and people have misconstrued what electioneering is and what it is not. To me it is quite clear. I hope the Minister is able to put it on paper.