The Electoral Finance Act is toast!
Shortly before 8pm tonight parliament passed the third reading of the bill to repeal it 112-9 (no prizes for guessing who voted against... how many Greens MP's are there in parliament again?).
Freedom of speech has won a significant victory. A shred of hope for the future of New Zealand looms on the horizon.
All it needs now is the Governor General's signature; David Farrar has kindly offered to give up his Tuesday night to drive it over to Vogel House.
A glass of wine is definitely in order!
Showing posts with label Electoral Finance Act. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Electoral Finance Act. Show all posts
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
The Jacket's a Breach, the Swimsuit Might be, but what about the T-Shirt?
Every lefty who said that the right were over-reacting and being hysterical about the potential reach of the controversial Electoral Finance Act are today eating their words.The Electoral Commission have decided that there were 4 instances of illegal campaigning under the Act in the recent election; 3 of which are worthy of police investigation. Most noteworthy, was ACT's Rodney Hide's yellow jacket which was deemed an election advertisement meaning it had to have an appropriate authorisation statement and written authorisation from the Party Financial Agent had to be obtained.
Now, apparently Rodney did have an authorisation statement inside the jacket that was available to view on request but this was not deemed sufficient.
This is an absolutely ridiculous law. Rodney could be fined $10,000 and the Party Financial Agent $40,000. Makes one ashamed to be a New Zealander; I can only imagine what our overseas visitors are making of this.
Redbaiter sums up the appropriate response nicely, if a little crassly, on Kiwiblog:
What a f****n basket case country. What a justice system. [Helen C]lark and Winston [Peters] roam free after all of their corruption and cronyism, and Rod Hide is before the Police and the Courts for wearing a yellow jacket. ..and people have the nerve to chastise me for saying this country is an inwardly collapsing socialist hole.
Homepaddock makes the interesting point that Green MP Metiria Turei wore a swimsuit with the Green Party logo on it during a triathlon.
No Minister's Fairfacts Media comments further:
What is the difference between a swimsuit and a yellow jacket?About the same as a Green Party fence sign and a National Party powerpoint presentation, the former which was judged by the commission to be of no consequence, the latter to be judged actionable!
Homepaddock's Ele wrote to the Electoral Commission about Turei's swimsuit and was told:
A party advertisement under the EFA is:
‘any form of words or graphics or both that can reasonably be regarded as encouraging or persuading voters to do either or both of the following:
(a) to vote for the party (whether or not the name of the party is stated):
(b) not to vote for another party (whether or not the name of the party is stated)’
It is not clear to me that a party logo, by itself, meets this definition.
UPDATE: On further correspondance, Ele reports the Electoral Commission clarified further:
Well, biting my tongue at the Electoral Commission's view on the use of political party logos and their role in election advertising, I wonder, then what the Electoral Commission would make of Rodney Hide's Epsom opponent's T-Shirt? No logo but a slogan.
As I write this post, Epsom Labour Party candidate Kate Sutton is still offering her "Kate 08" election T-Shirts for sale on her official Labour candidate site: http://www.katesutton.co.nz/.
It seems to me that these T-Shirts were designed to encourage people to vote for Kate in 2008, unless I am missing something? Whether there is an authorisation on these T-Shirts or not, I am not sure as zooming in I can see small words but I cannot see what they say - certainly there is no mention on the site or orde form - and so I think it might pay to have the Electoral Commission pass their eye over the T-Shirt themselves. I have just now dropped them a line.
As I write this post, Epsom Labour Party candidate Kate Sutton is still offering her "Kate 08" election T-Shirts for sale on her official Labour candidate site: http://www.katesutton.co.nz/.
It seems to me that these T-Shirts were designed to encourage people to vote for Kate in 2008, unless I am missing something? Whether there is an authorisation on these T-Shirts or not, I am not sure as zooming in I can see small words but I cannot see what they say - certainly there is no mention on the site or orde form - and so I think it might pay to have the Electoral Commission pass their eye over the T-Shirt themselves. I have just now dropped them a line.
Here is the link where you can order the T-Shirts and see Kate and friends modelling them. The order form is also reproduced below and helpfully states that one can order the T-Shirts by emailing campaign@katesutton.co.nz and finishes with the statement "Kate Sutton and Epsom Labour say thanks for your support."
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
Electoral Finance Act Threatens Privacy and Family Home
Imagine coming home to this on your lawn: it's 1000 knives!
No this isn't something from the "only in America" files it is Bob McCoskrie's front lawn covered in knives, complete with threatening note related to Bob's political activities! How did they get his address? Compliments of the Electoral Finance Act; law abiding critics of the govt have to give their addresses, anonymous thugs then take advantage and attack.
When we were prominent in student politics we had to have unlisted addresses and scrape together funds to pay for PO Boxes after Madeleine received a newspaper cut-out message threatening her to shut up or else for speaking up for freedom of association. But thanks to Labour, gone is the luxury of keeping your home safe if you want to speak up politically.
We have these strict privacy laws, so strict we can't even get each other's details from government departments despite the fact we are married, but the minute you want to criticise the government you have to give your details out to the whole world!
Bob sent us the following email outlining an attack on his home:
Doesn't he rock though? He and his family are subjected to this and the first sentence he writes speaks of his increased resolve continue speaking out.
UPDATE - Another email from Bob:
No this isn't something from the "only in America" files it is Bob McCoskrie's front lawn covered in knives, complete with threatening note related to Bob's political activities! How did they get his address? Compliments of the Electoral Finance Act; law abiding critics of the govt have to give their addresses, anonymous thugs then take advantage and attack.When we were prominent in student politics we had to have unlisted addresses and scrape together funds to pay for PO Boxes after Madeleine received a newspaper cut-out message threatening her to shut up or else for speaking up for freedom of association. But thanks to Labour, gone is the luxury of keeping your home safe if you want to speak up politically.
We have these strict privacy laws, so strict we can't even get each other's details from government departments despite the fact we are married, but the minute you want to criticise the government you have to give your details out to the whole world!
Bob sent us the following email outlining an attack on his home:
Now we don't agree with everything Bob stands for but we do agree with a lot and we certainly admire and respect Bob for standing for what he believes in and we absolutely think he should be able to do that without telling the whole world where he and his family live and without being subject to attacks on his home and personal threats.Reality of Battle Hits Home
Events over the past weekend have reminded me of just how important it is to speak up on family issues.
Last Saturday night, four women dressed in black came to our family home in South Auckland and placed almost 1,000 plastic knives into our front lawn. They also taped an intimidating note on our front door relating to the knives (anonymous of course!).
I am very thankful that my family and I were in Tauranga over the weekend and my children didn’t stumble across the display. The police have taken away evidence and are testing for fingerprints etc. and our neighbours kindly helped removed the offending items. My neighbours are wondering what sort of friends I have!!
Unfortunately, under the Electoral Finance Act, any material put out by Family First has to have an ‘Authorisation Statement’ which contains the residential address of the person authorising the material. Therefore, because of our VALUE YOUR VOTE campaign, it is fairly easy to figure out where we live.
BUT
… the need to publish important information relating to these family issues and the upcoming General Election is too important to stay silent on. (We are aware of other groups who have had second thoughts on speaking up because of this requirement.)
I knew that ’speaking out’ would draw criticism and labelling (and we have been certainly called a number of ‘colourful’ terms!) rather than debating the actual issues being raised - but I always hoped that the debate wouldn’t hit home as it has.THE BOTTOM LINE IS THIS-we will not be silenced.
Whenever we speak up on issues like marriage, the breakdown of family, the anti-smacking law and the role of parents, the pornography industry and public nudity, prostitution, pro-life issues including abortion and euthanasia, and many other topics that families are concerned about, we are going to make enemies . I’m the first to admit that we don’t always get it right, but we cannot afford towalk away from the opportunity. We have to speak up from a family perspective on these crucial issues.
What keeps us going is knowing that there are many many of you who are standing with us on these issues.
Events like this remind me of how much we value your support, words of encouragement (and correction!), financial and moral support, and prayers. (And I would especially ask at this time that you would pray for my family’ protection.)
William Booth - founder of the Salvation Army - said “50 years hence it will matter very little indeed how these people treated us. It will matter a great deal how we dealt with the work of God.”Once again, thanks for standing with us.
It is your support and encouragement that keeps us going!
Doesn't he rock though? He and his family are subjected to this and the first sentence he writes speaks of his increased resolve continue speaking out.
UPDATE - Another email from Bob:
Another anonymous note..
This time an apology !
We have just received this note - from 'anonymous'.
I see you didn't take our little prank as it was intended, just as a little
bit of harmless fun, just some plastic and spare time, I hope you could see the funny side of it... Never-the-less were truly sorry if this has in
anyway, offended or scared you emotionally physically or mentally... Were Sorry, We're very thankful that this seems to be a very badly thought out prank - especially in the light of all the concerns about knife attacks recently.Thank you to the hundreds of you who emailed words of encouragement . I t has been very humbling to know the level of support for Family First .
Fortunately we can smile at this one. But we do ask for your continued prayer as we speak out on sometimes controversial issues affecting families.
UPDATE: Media are picking up the story everywhere:
Herald
DominionPost
ODT
Stuff
Nine News
Yahoo
Info News
AngloINFO Singapore have the unfortunate title: "Knives Stabbed into Family First Leader"
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