Election spending window

The regulated period for expenditure in an election campaign could be less than three months under provisions of an electoral reform bill introduced to Parliament yesterday.

The Electoral (Finance Reform and Advance Voting) Amendment Bill sets out the reforms, most of which were announced in February.

The regulated period under Labour's old Electoral Finance Act was from January 1 of election year.

Justice Minister Simon Power said in February it would revert to three months before an election.

Since then he has decided that it could be less than three months if an election were held at short notice.