Proposed electoral law changes meet opposition

Greens co-leader Russel Norman wants donations of $1000 and over to be declared. File photo / Richard Robinson

The Government's proposed changes to electoral law have been met with opposition from Labour and the Green Party.

Justice Minister Simon Power yesterday released proposals aimed at getting consensus on electoral law.

This followed the repeal of the controversial Electoral Finance Act (EFA).

Among the proposals was an increase in campaign expenditure limits which has not been changed since 1995.

"Since that time the relative value of the limits have fallen by approximately 25 per cent in real terms," the proposal document said.

The discussion document recommends donations under $10,000 remain anonymous.

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman wants that lowered to $1000.

"We would certainly like to see that threshold lower.

"The Government will be allocating billions of dollars of taxpayers money and I think taxpayers and citizens have got a right to know who's funding the Governments election campaign," he told Radio New Zealand.

Transparency would allow taxpayers to see whether the funding of election campaigns had any influence on the policies of a government, Dr Norman said.

"We want elections to be contests of ideas, not contests of who has the most money."

Electoral finance rules help "protect our democracy from money".

"The issue is, I think, most of all about clarity of the rules."

A set election date would also provide certainty, he said.

Labour's electoral reform spokesman David Parker said the discussion document indicated the Government wanted no amendment to the donation disclosure regime.

The proposal retained the EFA regime governing donations to constituency candidates and political parties even though it became clear at the last election that the rules do not achieve transparency, he said.

"This was shown by the low rates of disclosure by both major parties. National disclosed the source of just $130,000 in donations and Labour just $420,000, though both spent more than $2 million each. This is clearly not transparent," Mr Parker said.

Labour wanted more discussion over the limits of donations and the disclosure regime.

The last government introduced the EFA in response to the Exclusive Brethren's campaign against Labour and the Green Party in 2005.

The religious sect's attempts to conceal its identity led to the law change by Labour, though there was a strong backlash against the changes, with critics saying it was overly prescriptive and a constraint on free speech.

Other proposals in the document include:

* a shorter regulated campaign period;

* allowing parties to spend the broadcasting allocation on more than television or radio advertising;

* a looser definition of what is classified as election advertising; and

* new rules around election campaigning not conducted by political parties.

Mr Power also announced that the various electoral agencies would be amalgamated into one overarching commission.

- NZPA