King Annette: Electoral Finance Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
King Annette: Electoral Finance Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:644;Page:13548] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 I just wish to make a few comments and to table a new Subpart 9 in Part 2 which concerns the indexation of limits. But first of all I thank the Hon Tau Henare for his contribution. He raised the issue of the crayfish donation. I can tell him that a technical amendment does address the issue he raised. The donations made under Subpart 1A and Subpart 2 are donations of money only paid by way of cash cheque or bank draft. I think that clarifies the issue he raised. 
Judith Collins also spoke to clause 22 “Interpretation”. An amendment in the name of Christopher Finlayson is on his Supplementary Order Paper and is one that has been accepted by the Government; we will no doubt vote on that in due course. Paula Bennett raised the matter of clause 55B which is the clause making it clear that Government departments Crown entities and State-owned enterprises cannot promote election advertisements and she asked whether that was just for a particular period. In fact those departments can never promote election advertisements and that is made clear for the purpose of the departments and also for the members in this Committee. 
As I said there is a new amendment in my name a proposed new Subpart 9 to Part 2 around the indexation of limits. The supbpart creates a mechanism whereby political party candidate or third party expenditure limits will increase at the rate of inflation rounded up to the next whole $1000. The total donation amounts that political parties and third parties can receive through the Electoral Commission will also increase at the same rate. This increase will occur once every 3 years by an Order in Council that will come into force on 1 October in the year before Parliament is due to expire. The threshold expenditure over which listing as a third party is required will also increase at the rate of inflation but will be rounded up to the next whole $100 which reflects the low end of this threshold. 
The mechanism that is being proposed here was originally proposed to the Royal Commission on the Electoral System and the royal commission in its report raised the issue and recommended that the Electoral Commission ensured that the expenditure permitted to each candidate kept pace with inflation. That was contained in that report going way back then. It was also contained in the departmental report on the bill from the Electoral Commission. The commission advised the Justice and Electoral Committee to adopt a proposal like that in relation to election expenditure. Mr Christopher Finlayson put forward an amendment to this end and I would like to thank him warmly for that. I asked officials to consider his amendment and to come back with a regime reflecting his proposal that is consistent with the broader drafting conventions. 
The amendment that I have put forward though does not index donation thresholds in this bill which was something that neither the royal commission nor the Electoral Commission recommended. However the amendment will mean that the amounts in the bill retain their value over time and I understand that a number of parties support this approach.