English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
English Bill: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:646;Page:15630] 
8.  
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Leader—National) 
 to the  
Minister of Justice 
: Is it Government policy that if a political party uses advertising material produced by Government departments it should count towards their spending cap under the Electoral Finance Act 2007; if not why not? 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 I refer the member to section 67 of the Electoral Finance Act and to the State Services Commission’s guidelines on department advertising and publicity campaigns. 
Hon Bill English 
: Has the Minister seen the statement made by the secretary of the Public Service Association (PSA) Brenda Pilott: “We would have a concern at any political party using public service material for political ends it’s really important actually that the political parties keep their politics out of the public service during election year.”; and if the secretary of the PSA knew that using Government department pamphlets for electioneering was wrong then why did the Ministers who were at the workshop not know that? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Yes I have seen those comments. 
Hon Bill English 
: Can the Minister confirm that if the Labour Party runs out of Government department pamphlets and it is looking to use the video of Ministers singing at its congress as a political ad then it will have to be authorised by the Labour Party if the public are to regard it as supporting the Labour Party? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: I think that even Labour Party members are still allowed to communicate with their members. But after listening to Dr Lockwood Smith singing last night I wonder whether they might think that perhaps it should actually be censored rather than authorised. 
Hon Bill English 
: Has the Minister seen reports that video footage of Cabinet Ministers singing at the Labour congress is available on YouTube; and can she tell the House whether this is now a political advertisement supporting the Labour Party and therefore it requires authorisation or is it in fact an attack on the Labour Party and therefore it does not require authorisation? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: No I have not seen that on YouTube. But I have seen a video of John Key walking through a Pacific Island market in Porirua where he was asked why National did not support increasing the minimum wage and I think he said something like he could not remember whether he supported it. 
Hon Bill English 
: In light of the comments by the Labour Party president that it is fine to use Government department material for electioneering why should the public not believe that Labour always intended the material produced by Government departments to be available for electioneering and that that is why it has directed Government departments to carry out their publicity campaigns? 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Because that is plain wrong it is a lie and it has been made up by that member. We have had a diet of this for weeks—made-up stories by Bill English that he peddles around New Zealand as the truth. 
I seek leave to table these documents from the National Party website which need to be on the record of the House because the National Party has now removed them from its website having had them on illegally for 3 months. 
Documents by leave laid on the Table of the House.