House taking urgency on spending law

Labour says it will pay back what it owes. Picture / Martin Sykes

Legislation to validate unlawful election spending will be rushed through Parliament under urgency this week, and looks certain to be passed.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday she understood Labour's confidence and supply partners - United Future, New Zealand First and the Progressives - had agreed to back the legislation.

The House is expected to go into urgency today to pass the validation bill "because as long as you have expenditure deemed outside an appropriation, then you've got government accounts that are tagged", she said.

The idea of using legislation to retrospectively validate unlawful spending triggered a furore when it was first proposed by Labour several weeks ago.

Some heat has been taken out of that argument since Speaker Margaret Wilson last week recommended legislation be passed, and also since Labour said it would pay back $825,000 it spent unlawfully.

But the detail of the legislation will still be closely watched, particularly by National.

Leader Don Brash said National would not support anything that let parties "off the hook" from paying back money they unlawfully spent.

Depending on how it is written, the legislation could potentially scuttle a court case taken by Libertarianz leader Bernard Darnton against Helen Clark and the Parliamentary Service about Labour's pledge card.

Mr Darnton is seeking a judicial review of the spending on Labour's pledge card - but the new bill is expected to validate spending dating as far back as 1989, and to include a sunset clause which expires next year.

The court will likely have to consider how that might affect the case.

The legislation is also likely to contain a short-term measure to clarify what "parliamentary purposes" means.

That definition was at the heart of Auditor-General Kevin Brady's finding that more than $1 million of taxpayer-funded advertising before last year's election was unlawful.

Helen Clark said the overall intent of the legislation to be revealed today is "really to enable Parliamentary Service to continue to operate".

Labour is grappling with the task of finding the $825,000.

Party president Mike Williams said last night fundraising was looking "promising", but acknowledged the target was like a "telephone number".

Today he will ask Labour MPs to donate 5 per cent of their salary.


LABOUR'S FUNDRAISERS

* A weekend art auction raised $44,000 when it drew $35,000 last year, and another event raised $14,000 when its target was $10,000, says party president Mike Williams.

* Labour had tried its first email appeal and was looking to conduct a car raffle shortly.

* Mr Williams will today ask Labour MPs to give 5 per cent of their annual salary to the cause between now and Christmas.