The campaign by Invercargill to fight funding cuts to the Southern Institute of Technology could breach restrictions in the Electoral Finance Bill - which will be passed into law next week.
Full-page ads were run in five newspapers yesterday against cuts of up to $8 million to theinstitute, which on casual rates could cost more than the $120,000 limit allowed from January 1 of election year.
The ads themselves are not overtly critical of Labour or the Government about the cuts which could have a serious effect on student numbers. And they have been run outside the regulated period, which starts on January 1 and runs right up to the election.
But if they are to be repeated within the regulated period - and Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt is threatening there will be more ads in the New Year - they could breach the spending limit.
But they do criticise Government policy. The ad, under the heading "Invercargill needs You!" and a picture of Mr Shadbolt, says: "If it ain't broke don't fix it. Change driven by ill-defined policy is not going to deliver any of the goals set out in the tertiary education strategy and is going to have a major impact on Invercargill, SIT staff, and students."
Mr Shadbolt is hinting that the ads will be a lot more negative and says he is prepared to go to prison if the ads become a test case. "There's an election coming up and we'll be doing everything possible to launch a campaign to bring down this Government if they are going to launch a campaign to bring down this province," he said.
The new law broadens the definition of an election ad as follows: "Any form of words or graphics or both that can reasonably be regarded as ... encouraging or persuading voters to vote, or not to vote, for a type of party or for a type of candidate that is described or indicated by reference to views, positions, or policies that are or are not held, taken or pursued (whether or not the name of a party or the name of a candidate is stated)."
Election law specialist Graeme Edgeler said the ad might well be captured by the law, particularly taken in conjunction with Mr Shadbolt's statements about bringing down the Government.
