8. Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Leader—National) Link to this
to the Minister of Justice
Why was the appointment of an expert panel to look at electoral law announced last Friday?
Hon PETE HODGSON (Minister for Economic Development) Link to this
Because that was when the appointment process had been completed.
Has the Labour Party learnt absolutely nothing from its self-serving, partisan treatment of electoral law, which has led to the disaster of the Electoral Finance Act, and why did Labour go ahead and appoint a committee to deal with something as constitutionally important as electoral law but fail to consult the major Opposition party and other parties in the Parliament?
My understanding is that from the time the electoral expert panel idea was mentioned as something that could be done—I think it was part of a Green Party initiative agreed to in the Budget process—the National Party pronounced itself against it. So there would be little point in consulting, would there not?
Can the Government confirm that it has appointed as the leader of the expert panel Associate Professor Andrew Geddis, New Zealand’s leading academic proponent of State funding, and why does the Government not own up to the fact that it has done that in order to avoid discussing, during the campaign, Labour’s policy, which is State funding, because it knows that that policy is very unpopular with the public?
I do not know associate law professor Andrew Geddis to be the nation’s leading advocate on State funding, but I do know that 20 years ago the royal commission suggested that State funding was not a bad idea; and perhaps Andrew Geddis has read that report.
Dr Russel NormanIs the Minister confident that the Electoral Finance Act did enough to clean up money-laundering by secret trusts that some parties have engaged in—some very well, and some less skilfully—or does the Minister agree with the Greens that there are many outstanding issues regarding anonymous donations and electoral finance that clearly need reviewing outside of this House by an independent citizens forum?
My view is that the latter assessment is the one that is worth proceeding with, and, indeed, that is part of the terms of reference. It includes, certainly, whether we should have the same, or different, funding models for political parties; or, if there is to be State funding, how that would be allocated. But also it has a recommendation to take a look at any issues with the current system of funding elections and political parties to see whether the Greens’ proposition is one that comes through the test.
Is the Minister aware of the longstanding convention that no Government makes significant appointments within 3 months of an election, and why did Labour proceed to make appointments to that important committee, in yet another example of its consistent breach of that longstanding convention, simply to give jobs to its mates?
Yes, I am aware of the convention. That convention is managed on the advice of the Cabinet Office, and to my knowledge that advice is always taken.
Can the Minister now confirm that starting with the pledge card debacle after the 2005 election, Labour has persisted with its blatant partisan attempt to screw the scrum on electoral law, and that it wants to avoid having to tell the public, in the election campaign, that it favours State funding, so at the last minute it has appointed an expert panel run by someone who can be guaranteed to implement Labour’s policy?
The member kind of makes it up. Why do I not put him out of his misery and say that State funding has been New Zealand Labour Party policy since before he left school. It has been that way all that time. So there is no particular surprise in it. However, I think the member besmirches the reputation of the people who have been appointed to the expert panel and actually besmirches the citizens process that the Greens have helped devise. Those people, of course, have not even yet been discovered, so it is a bit hard to criticise them.
Can the Minister confirm that the Green Party fought incredibly hard to secure the right of ordinary New Zealanders to have their say on electoral law through a citizens forum, and if that citizens forum never gets to meet, then the public will never get to have that opportunity to participate in electoral finance law reform, through a combination of the reluctance and delay by Labour and outright opposition to citizens’ participation by National?