Smith Lockwood: Electoral Finance Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Smith Lockwood: Electoral Finance Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:644;Page:13577] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 I will pick up from where my colleague Craig Foss left off because what I do not understand about the Minister’s proposal in new clause 117A in Part 2 is why she has chosen just some of the financial quantities spelt out in the bill to be CPI adjusted. It seems curious that a number of the specific amounts mentioned in the bill are not to be CPI adjusted so I ask the Minister to explain that. This is a serious request I make of her and if the “head prefect” could just leave her alone for a moment I would appreciate that. 
Annette King came into this Parliament in 1984 with me and together we have seen a lot of legislation in this Parliament. I read this bill in detail for the first time this afternoon and I have to say that I am deeply shocked—deeply shocked. I do not have the right word to describe it but I find it to be one of the most offensive pieces of legislation I have seen in the time since she and I came into this House together. I have a lot of regard for Annette King as a Minister. I say that openly but I want her to listen to this. Why is she adjusting by the movement in the CPI only certain of the quanta? She has specified the maximum expenses incurred by the promoter described in the provision in clause 53(2)(d) as well as the amount of a candidate’s election expenses a party’s election expenses and a third party’s election expenses. But a number of other specified amounts are covered in clauses 22 and 22A of the bill and I could nominate a number of other clauses where the Minister specifies quanta. Yet those are not CPI adjusted and it seems to me there is no logic as to why some are CPI adjusted and others are not. 
I come back to what my colleague Craig Foss was saying: the way in which the provision in new clause 117A is spelt out as to how the amounts should be CPI adjusted does not cater for an early election. The provision has been made very specific to apply to actual years. I mean it is as though this legislation is designed to be in place for only 3 years. If the Government intends this legislation to be ongoing why is the CPI adjustment not calculated every year so that in any year that an election is called the figures are automatically adjusted? The clause does not spell that out. It states that the Order in Council will come into force on 1 October 2010 and must reflect the change in the CPI between 31 December 2007 and the quarter ending 30 June 2010. That is very specific to one time period. 
Craig Foss also mentioned that the Government should be serious about the amount that candidates can spend. The $20000 limit I think was set back in 1993. I had the library check out for me this afternoon the cumulative increase in the CPI which since then has been 35 percent—35 percent. So what we could buy in 1993 with $20000 is now 35 percent less than it was then. In other words what Mr Foss said was exactly right: it is the equivalent now of being able to spend $13000 then. All I put to the Minister is the question of why this whole thing is not approached more openly and more honestly. 
What frightened me this afternoon I tell the Minister—and I will be straight up with her—is that I heard her and other people say that the thing that has driven them is the activity of the Exclusive Brethren. Do members know what disgusts me about that? It is the fact that demonising a religious group is what Hitler did to the Jews in the early stages of his rule. He demonised the Jews. All I say to the Minister the Hon Annette King my colleague who came into Parliament with me in 1984 is that that was not the final solution but it was the early stages of demonising a small group of people. And I ask her to take a more open view of all of this. If she is going to go with the provisions that she has in new clause 117A then I ask her at least to make it an honest approach to indexing the figures properly and to indexing all the figures not just a small group of them.