KEY POINTS:
Trevor Mallard's van with a Labour Party logo and his contact details on it is an advertisement and is in breach of the Electoral Finance Act, he has been told.
But Annette King's fridge magnet with a Labour Party logo and her contact details on it is not.
They are the views of chief electoral officer Robert Peden, who told Mr Mallard yesterday he considered the red van to be an advertisement.
It has no slogans on it but contains a phone number and email address.
Mr Peden has given the Hutt South MP two weeks to put an authorisation statement on the vehicle.
The decision is at odds with another Mr Peden made recently, when he found that a fridge magnet calendar Ms King, the Justice Minister, distributed to households in her Rongotai electorate was not an election advertisement.
It also included her contact details and a Labour Party logo - and a parliamentary crest because the Parliamentary Service paid for it.
Mr Mallard paid for his van himself so does not have a parliamentary crest. He disagrees with Mr Peden's ruling but says he will comply.
He said the van was not bought for the purpose of electioneering and was not used for electioneering but to transport himself and his bikes, and for constituency clinics.
It was designed to refer people to his email address and phone number.
"I think that is part of my job as an MP and that is something that is exempted from the act. Clearly the chief electoral officer disagrees as to the primary purpose of it. I've had vans since 1994."
Mr Peden's view is expected to jolt other parties into putting authorisation statements on their vans, as required for election advertisements under the act, including those funded by Parliament.
A taxpayer-funded National Party van sitting in Parliament's carpark is almost certainly in breach of the act, based on Mr Peden's view of Mr Mallard's van. It is described as the party's Wellington metro mobile office and carries not only a party logo and contact details - like Mr Mallard's - but an advertising slogan as well, "Working for You".
The Chief Electoral Office handles advertising for candidates and the Electoral Commission handles advertising issues for political parties.
One of the commission's early decisions, agreeing to register the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union as a third party, is being challenged today in the High Court at Wellington by National.
National says the union, as an affiliate of Labour, is involved in the administration of the party, and under the act is therefore prevented from registering as a third party.
The commission's view is that only "natural persons" are debarred, not "legal persons".
Meanwhile, Finance Minister Michael Cullen told Parliament yesterday the Treasury had sought Crown Law advice to make sure the publicity to be released around next week's Budget did not breach the act.
