4. Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Leader—National) Link to this
to the Minister of Justice
Does she stand by her statement, in relation to the We’re making a difference for everyone pamphlet that “The secretary of the Labour Party has decided that this particular booklet … will be apportioned against Labour party expenses.”; if so, why?
Hon ANNETTE KINGWhy did the Minister make that statement in the House, when in fact the secretary of the Labour Party had written to the Electoral Commission only 2 days earlier to deny that the pamphlet was even an election advertisement, let alone that it would count as a Labour Party expense?
I am not responsible for what the secretary of the Labour Party says, but I repeated in this House the comments he had made.
Can the Minister tell us who was right, then: was it she, when she stood up in this House and said that, OK, fair cop, the Labour Party will count the booklet as a Labour Party election expense, or was it the Labour Party’s financial agent, who wrote to the Electoral Commission to say that Labour had done nothing wrong, and, in fact, to demand that a correction be made on the commission’s website?
Is the Minister aware that this situation does seem oddly familiar, given that before the last election the Labour Party secretary—the same one—said he would count the cost of the pledge card as an election expense, but then, once the election was over, he told the Electoral Commission that it would not be counted as an election expense?
What is vaguely familiar is the whining and whingeing from the National Party because it cannot spend the millions of dollars that it had planned to spend on its election campaign, right up to 3 months before the election, pretending that it did not count as election advertising. Its billboards would have been right around New Zealand. National is not able to do that. What we get now is its whingeing and snivelling about it.
How can the House believe anything this Minister says about the Labour Government’s attitude to the Electoral Finance Act, when the House is being told one thing in public, but behind closed doors the Labour Party’s agents are doing exactly the opposite?
If the Minister has no responsibility in this Parliament for the Labour Party, why did she get up and say that the particular booklet in question will be apportioned against Labour Party expenses—on what basis did she say that?
Hon Dr Michael Cullen Link to this
Has the Minister read the pamphlet We’re making a difference for everyone; if so, can she confirm that it highlights the fact that the Government is increasing spending on health and education, cutting taxes, boosting New Zealand superannuation, and increasing Working for Families payments, and can she also confirm that it can be interpreted as an election platform for Labour only if it is assumed that National will cut those precise elements of spending?
Can the Minister confirm that her statements about whether something will be counted as a Labour Party expense are just as credible as the statement she made that “The public of New Zealand can be assured that the Labour Party … will abide by the Electoral Finance Act.”; and is she aware of the evidence to the opposite: that Labour shows the least understanding of the Electoral Finance Act, that it is the first party to be found to have breached the Act, that it has not correctly authorised a number of publications, and that now she is saying one thing in public about its compliance, while the Labour Party is saying the total opposite behind closed doors?