We hope you like our billboards.

They are using humour to make a serious point – that the Electoral Finance Act is a step in the wrong direction to a more authoritarian New Zealand as it makes it harder for the public to criticise MPs in election year yet makes it easier for MPs to spend taxpayer money on their election campaigns and not even have it count towards their spending cap.

Just $70 will keep a billboard alive for another day. If you go and donate $70 on our donate page, we'll keep a billboard up for another day. We can even proudly allocate a day to you, so you can claim the credit for a particular billboard on a particular day.

If you wish to donate more than $70, that of course is great.

For those "rich pricks" as our Minister of Finance calls them, we have the following options:

1. $70 for one non-Auckland billboard for one day
2. $100 for one Auckland billboard for a day
3. $150 for two non-Auckland billboards for a day
4. $200 for one Auckland billboard for a weekend
5. $500 for a billboard for a week
6. $2,000 keeps a billboard up for an entire month. 11 of these and they are up until election day.
7. $5,000 gets you an entirely new billboard with a new authoritarian and a new location for a month. You can pick to have it in your local town or suburb.
8. $10,000 gets you your own personal billboard for three months

The FSC put out this press release this afternoon:

The Free Speech Coalition, set up to campaign against the Electoral Finance Bill, is sad that MPs from Labour, NZ First, and the Greens have ignored the massive public sentiment against the bill.

The Act discourages individuals and groups from participating in the electoral process and spending their own money, while at the same time allows MPs and parliamentary parties to far more easily use taxpayer funds on their election campaigns and not even have it count towards their spending limits. It is the ultimate act in hypocrisy.

The MPs have

• Ignored the Law Society’s advice that the Bill should be scrapped• Ignored the Human Rights Commission opposition to the regulated period, and their request to allow the public to submit on the amended Bill• Ignored the NZ Institute of Charted Accountant’s advice that the Bill is unworkable• Ignored the Electoral Commission’s advice on spending limits• Failed to provide legislative certainty around the exemptions for MPs• Protected anonymous donations with massive loopholes which may result in less, not more, disclosure• Continually misrepresented key clauses of the Bill

“New Zealand has no written constitution. At the end of the day 61 MPs in Parliament can pass any law they like, no matter how repugnant. Previously constitutional conventions have protected Acts like the Electoral Act, but the passage of the Electoral Finance Bill sees the demise of that convention.” said spokesperson David Farrar.

“We hoped the parties supporting this Bill would listen to the near universal opposition from the media, from the legal profession, and from the public and do the right thing. Sadly they have chosen not to.

“We do not believe there should be no consequences for those parties which passed the Electoral Finance Act into law. The NZ Herald correctly labeled it as an “Attack on Democracy” and we believe it is time for Democracy to attack back.

“The Free Speech Coalition will commence an advertising campaign tomorrow against parties and MPs which voted for the Electoral Finance Act. This campaign will continue into 2008. A media advisory with details of the campaign will be released tomorrow.

ENDS

I used to think that the Electoral Commission could act with impartiality but it seems that they too have become corrupted.

Why do  say that?

Well because today is a sad day in New Zealand politics and not just for the partisan and corrupt gings on in the parliament but for two decisions from the Electoral Commission that show that out statutory authorities are hopelessly corrupted as well.

The first decision is about yet another Labour Party breach that has not been referred to the Police because it was supposedly unintentional. labour candiddate in Christchurch Brendan Burns has a caravan and it has no authorisation statement on it. The caravan has been deemed an election advertisement and despite photographic evidence of the candidates breach being supplied the Electoral Commission has decided that “No offence committed because Mr Burns did not wilfully contravene the Act.”

So lets get this straight, he wilfully got a caravan, he wilfully painted it to promte himself and the Labour Party, the Electoral Finance Act has been in place since January 1 yet he didn’t wilfully contravene the Act!!!! What on earth does it take for a statutory body to prosecute a Labour Party member?

Now we look at the next decision, that of the Electoral Commission’s decision to refer the Employers and Manufacturers Association advertisement advocating for changes in public policy, namely the Kiwisaver provisions of the government to the Police for prosecution.

Why?

Well because they are not registered as a third party and the ad cost over $12,000. Well done! The Government and the Electoral Commission have through the draconian, anti-democratic and anti Freedom of Speech law have now closed down public advcacy by citizens for or against public policy. We warned that this would happen, we were laughed at, once again we have been proven to be right.

We have here a classic case of electoral hypocrisy where the “independent” bastard bosses at the EPMU are able to register as a third party and even if the court case to oppose that is successful they say they will carry on campaigning anyway and a legitimate business organisation campaigning against a law or policy on behalf of its members and they get closed down and prosecuted. Utter disgrace.

So what we have here is the death of public advocacy, but only if you oppose the government or their policy. We truly have stepped into the anti-democratic realms of totalitarianism where governments must not be criticised.

Will Helen Clark now simply assume power by refusing to name an election date? She owns the Police, the Electoral Authorities and the Army, there quite litertally is nothing or no-one that could stop her having a bloodless coup d’etat.

Electoral Commission questioned in High Court on EPMU decision - The Electoral Commission is being questioned over its decision to allow a union affiliated with Labour to register as a third party [TVNZ News Politics]

One little line at the bottom of the NZPA report on the Electoral Finance Act case before the courts today shows that the Bastard Bosses at the EPMU believe themselves to be above the law, whcih isn’t at all surprising because being Labour party members they all have a get out of jail free card.

Andrew Little shows his contempt for a law he supported.

Mr Little has said the EPMU will run an advertising campaign in the lead up to the election regardless of any decisions regarding its third party status.

Yes indeed, a classic case of rules for thee but not for me. We will be watching very carefully exactly what they do spend on their campaign.

Lobby group intends to defy electoral law - The Sensible Sentencing Trust is planing to defy the Electoral Finance Act, by campaigning against political parties whose crime polices don’t measure up to its expectations [TVNZ News Politics]

The gift that keeps on giving is the Electoral Finance Act. Labour, privately at least, must be rueing the day they foisted this law upon us as it has been used as the stick with which to beat them almost every day since the law passed.

Now the Sensible Sentencing Trusts says that its law and order campaign is likely or unlikely, they can’t be sure and neither can their lawyers, to break the law.

Quite rightly they are campaigning to enlighten voters to the issues that they think are important to their members but the problem lies with the wording of the Act because every political party takes a position on law and order and therefore theoretically the Sensible Sentencing Trust would now have to limit how much they spend campaigning for tougher sentences. It is patently clear for all to see that this is anti-democratic and contrary to our rights to Freedom of Speech.

Good on the Trust for sticking to it guns.

Poll law hits cancer jab ads - The new electoral law has forced the Ministry of Health to keep its advertising for the cervical cancer vaccination programme at a low level until after the election. The human papilloma virus vaccination programme starts next… [NZ Herald Politics]

News today of the extraordinary lengths the Health Department is having to go to to get a public information campaign underway. They have decided that it is all too hard and so are holding back their efforts till after the election.

At least they are bothering to understand the silly law unlike their political masters who it seems are intent on breaking it daily.

In accordance with the new government laws (Fair Speech (2009) Act) regulating political speech on the internet, this blog is required to submit each new article to the Office of the Commissioner of Fair Speech prior to posting in order to comply with new Fair Speech Laws.

Under the terms of this Act, this post has been regulated in the interests of fairness.

Under the authority of Christine Caughey, Commissioner for Fair Speech, Wellington

Dated 15/08/2010

Authorised by Cameron Slater, Owner of whaleoil.co.nz, 29 Glenfern Rd, Howick.(Under the terms of the Electoral Finance (Local Government) Act, 2009)

(What will happen to bloggers if Labour and its allies wins a fourth term)

The EMPU is up in arms at National’s attempts to have the law enforced.The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU) says the National Party’s latest bid to stop it being registered to take part in the election campaign is an attempt to silence [...]

Campaign against Electoral Act stepped up with ad - A campaigner against the Electoral Finance Act is upping the ante in his effort to get rid of it [TVNZ News Politics]

John Boscawen has taken out a full page ad in the SST calling for the EFA to be repealed.

Personally I think John has wasted his effort. Labour won’t rescind the law they fought so hard to put in. Only if more charges are laid on them under the act could I see them pulling the law.

New ad rules snare Labour - Labour will have to include the costs of a taxpayer-funded leaflet in its election spending after an embarrassing Electoral Commission ruling that it was an election advertisement. The brochure - titled “A fair economy… [NZ Herald Politics]

Labour have just had a rather large chunck of cash sliced from their election spending this year and all because of their “brilliant” new law the Electoral Finance Act.

They, once again, were trying to be too cute by getting brochuers prepared last year and billed out of the Prime Ministers budget. However the Electoral Commission has ruled that it is an election ad and has to be deducted from their limit.

Meanwhile Jim Anderton reckons the law needs “more commonsense”. Suck it up Jim, suck it up. You voted for the law and now you’ve broken it, suck it up.

All four parties that voted for this dramatic assault on freedom of speech have now breached the law they foisted upon us. I call for prosecutions on any and all further breaches.

One of the biggest concerns from this side of the political spectrum was that the EFA would only constrain those who respected the law - that is to say, the right. This is due to our observation that traditionally, left wing protests aren’t too fused on obeying the rules.Well, we were right. While even PowerPoint [...]

Post of the day goes to Stephen Franks, pulling apart the decision of the Electoral Commission.A purposive interpreter might have assumed that Parliament intended to stop third parties acting under the influence of, or in collusion with, or congruently in campaigning with the party. Such an interpreter might have given a wide meaning to [...]

To show you how ridiculous the Electoral Finance Act has become we now have auctions on Trademe bearing the authorisation statements.

Not only is the auction authorised by the candidate it is also authorised by the Greens financial agent. So fo all who check the auction out their personal address details are there for all to see., hardly Netsafe.

And they even suggest that if the auction goes for under $1000 they can hide it except they get the law wrong because in order to win and pay for the auction the seller will know exactly who the buyers is and thus they will have to declare it anyway because they knew who gave them the money.

Interestingly the authorisation on the auction is different from the authorisation on the photo. Just who is the Green Party financial agent?

Read more

The Labour Party certainly seem intent on prosecution under the EFA, there own law they foisted upon us.

Today there were Labour Party protestors, well ok there were a grand total of eight of them and they even had to rope in in-bred school boys from the Wairarapa.

They were illegally using National Party logos and handing out the leaflet below. Note how it supports the EFA and note that it doesn’t contain a promoter statment or an Authorisation. A complaint has been filed with the Electoral Commission. Again it is difficult to see how this isn’t wilful.

Plus it isn’t even funny.

Labour Party stooges have broken the Electoral Finance Act by staging protest outside the National Party conference wearing mocked up rosettes that illegally display the National Party logo without permission or authorisation.

Front and centre amongst the protestors was Labour Party stalwart Sonny Thomas and surprise, surprise Labour party funded blogger Steve Pierson aka Clinton Smith. A complaint has been forwarded to the Electoral Commission.

Once again it is the supporters of the Electoral Finance Act that are breaking the law that they passed.

Read more

Tui has had a brilliant week with masses of free advertising. Not only that they have single-handedly show up the Electoral Finance Act for the anti-democratic and draconian legislation that it is.

Tui however are umoved by all the fuss and plan on leaving the billboards exactly where they are.

Further they plan to put more up mocking politicians even though the law specifically precludes this sort of anti-democratic behaviour during election year.

Labour and their poodles have succeeded only in making themselves laughing stocks for putting up such shoddy law that a beer company is caught out simply by advertising its product.

Read more

The Electoral Commission has released a whole heap of decisions regarding breaches of the Electoral Finance Act. It is perhaps very unsurprising that all of the breaches are by supporters of the draconian and anti-democratic Electoral Finance Act.

The Progressives have broken the law over an advert in the Southland Times about BZP and have been referred to the Police.

Labour has broken the law with a spare wheel cover with words “THE FUTURE IS WITH LABOUR” and a Labour Party logo. It is an election advertisement without a promoter statement. They aren’t being prosecuted because bizarrely the Commission is of the opinion that it wasn’t wilful. How the hell it can’t be wilful is beyond me, did the owner of the vehicle “mistakenly” place the wheel cover there? Or did it “magically” appear?

More likely the reason they aren’t being referred to the police is because they are Labour Party members, the best legal defence that money can buy. Hell it is so good you don’t even get prosecuted despite prima facie evidence to the contrary.

So once again we have deliberations from the Electoral Commission and once again we have breaches by supporters of the EFA and once again the Police are going to have to investigate. The Progressives are in big trouble because they don’t hold Labour Party memberships.

Tut, tut over Tui’s take on Peters - A Tui billboard saying “When Winston says no, he means no - Yeah, right” has brought a warning that it may breach the Electoral Finance Act.The billboard is in the Tauranga electorate Winston Peters is desperate to win, and the… [NZ Politics]

How ridiculous is an Act that regulates satire?

Very ridiculous is what it is. Tui is getting a letter from the Electoral Commission about its billboards, there’s six of them now. about Winston Raymond Peeters and his defnition of no.

Good to see the MSM catching up with the blogosphere. WOBH revealed the billboards on Tuesday and today is Friday so a good three days before the MSM.

This is yet another of the ever growing list of predictions that DPF, John Boscawen and I raised when opposing the EFA. Every single prediction has come true. The law is an ass, and a knackered ass at that.

Nats suspect Govt offices broke law - National deputy leader Bill English says government departments may have effectively been breaching electoral laws for seven months by using the term “Labour-led Government” on their websites.Mr English yesterday released advice… [NZ Politics]

The Labour-led theft of public monies continues unabated. Not only that the Government has breached the Electoral Finance Act 13,600 times on government website!

Why does Labour find it so hard to follow the law?

I only read one left wing blog as a rule, because they’re all so insane. NRT is about the best one, but even then he has a hard time dealing with the reality that normal people see in front of their nose.Exhibit 1:Under left-wing governments, the many get more. Under the right, we get less. [...]

TVNZ is reporting that the Electoral Commission has caved and allowed the EPMU to run as a third party for the Election with “special permission”.

This will no doubt end up in court.

The decision now means that the big money lining up in the election is behind Labour. They now have more than $1.2 million committed to anti-National campaigning.

UPDATE: Peter Northcote has emailed me from the EC. The decision hasn’t been made yet and TVNZ are displaying old news items for some reason. It does beg the question though as to why the government hasn’t resourced the EC appropriately for Election Year?

Where is the big money in elections. Labour would have you believe that it is National that has the “big money” but you’d be wrong.

The Electoral Commission lists five third party unions affiliated to the Labour Party, who are applying to be listed as third parties; their decision is pending the decision on the EPMU.

But in addition to this there are five other third parties listed—from the CTU to the NZUSA, to the PSA, to Martin Cooney in two guises: the National Union of Public Employees and “Health Cuts Hurt”.

So far the unions intend to spend up to $1.2 million attacking the National Party this election.

So where is the “big money”?

Why it is Labour’s “big money” union bully boys of course.

Matt McCarten: Donors running a mile from donations to political parties - One of the unforeseen and unintended consequences of the Electoral Finance Bill is that wealthy individual donors and corporations are running a mile from having anything to do with political donations.Look at poor Owen Glenn… [NZ Politics]

Matt McCarten has a very good article in the Hos this morning and it is a good indicator as to the state of play in the various parties.

Matt points out that the Electoral Finance Act, the Act that was supposed to dry up National’s funding has in fact dried up everyones funding and the parties that it was supposed to help are the ones in the most trouble.

“It is an open secret that most of the centre-left parties are broke. In the past it didn’t matter too much because they were able to use taxpayers’ money via parliamentary funds. But the Auditor-General has ended that little scam and their own-goal over the Electoral Finance Bill has dried up the unions and other friendly institutions from financing campaigns.”

Indeed!

What I find hugely ironic is that the parties that foisted this anti-democratic law upon us all are the very ones that are willy-nilly breaking the law.

I bet when Helen approved the idea of posting home addresses, she was rubbing her hands in glee at the thought of Exclusive Brethren being exposed.One can be quite certain that she never though it might backfire like this!

When Winston Peters held up his little sign saying NO, he was lying. We know this now because Audrey Young has revealed in the print edition the email conversation that OG had with his PR person.

Steve Fisher: Our plan worked well. There is nothing new about you in here Owen. Note that Winston says you have never made a donation to NZ First, so at all costs you must stick to that line. It was definitely the right thing to do to deny the Maori Party offer as well.

Owen Glenn: Steve - are you saying I should deny giving a donation to NZ First? When I did?

Steve Fisher: No, just stick to the line of referring stuff to NZ First. What I’m saying is we don’t want to contradict Winston.

Ouch….so this shows that back in Februrary when this blog and others were claiming a cash for honours scandal we were in fact correct. Not only that back in 2005 there was speculation that “someone” tried to buy the election result with a donation of $250k to the Maori Party and now with OG’s own words it it appears to have been him.Read more

Emails reveal fibs on brochure - Inland Revenue canned a KiwiSaver brochure because of fears it would be used for electioneering, despite at the time saying it was pulled for commercial reasons.National Party deputy leader Bill English tabled IRD emails in Parliament… [NZ Politics]

I can’t hardly wait for the leftist Labour Party sponsored bloggers to accuse me and David of orchestrating opposition to the EFA so it would force Labour to dig in and pass it knowing that the bill was fatally flawed in the first place….it is all a consipracy I tell you…a conspiracy to defeat Labour with their own laws.

The Electoral Finance Act is just he best gift labour have given National. No matter how desperately the numpties like “Full Moon” King try to spin it the law is worse than an ass….The hits for Labour just keep on coming.

Yes Bill English served up another slapping by revealing that IRD pulled some pamphlets because they were too sucky towards the Labour Party. The Labour Party’s master plan to have felching and fawning brochures pouring out of government departments has fallen over.

The opposite of what labour wanted is happening and their back-bench is is revolt. They are clinging to the forlorn hope that they will be returned but are unable to spend their publicly funded money on any promotion for the clear and present fear of electoral petitions overturning the results.

read more

Legality of Govt press releases challenged - Electoral officials will be asked toconsider if press statements on the www.beehive.govt.nz website are election advertisements under the Electoral Finance Act, as National continues to highlight difficulties with the new law.The… [NZ Politics]

The Electorla Finance Act is the gift that keeps on giving. The only problem for the government is that their spiteful and ill-considered Act is only giving to National.

This was the law that was supposed to be rushed through, silence Labour critics, enable labour’s allies and free up government cash for the government to use.

Almost daily, since Jan 1, it has risen to bite Labour on its own prodigious ass. Every time an EFA story hits the press that is a few more people who are awakened to the farce that is this government.

Like cold-sores the EFA rears its head when the government least expects it. Now it is government press releases from Minister that may well be in breach of the law. I can’t say we didn’t tell them so while we all chortle at the governments discomfiture the apologists are all strangely silent on the issue.

The last time a Government pissed off Bob Jones, he went and set up the New Zealand Party - and took 14% of the vote in 1984 which also meant that Rob Muldoon and the National Party went down in a heap.

Now history repeats abut this time the Dictatorship that Sir Robert wants punished is Helen Clark and the Labour Party. Sir Robert is not someone you want to piss off and if he gets it into his head to punish Labour then up on the 9th Floor they will be getting a little nervous - and with good reason. Flailing 20% points behind in most polls, the last thing that Clark and her crew would want is to be reminded daily that Sir Robert is out to destroy them by exposing the corrupt EFA for exactly what it is - A limitation on free speech.

I wonder if Sir Robert’s anger is going to result in another 5% points off Labour diminishing support base.Like he cares about the fines contained in the Electoral Finance Act.

Watchdog investigates Labour’s pamphlet - The Electoral Commission may have to consider whether taxpayer funding for Labour’s Budget promotional brochure is a “donation” to the party under the Electoral Finance Act.If it is, the commission will also have to determine… [NZ Politics]

The pamphlet fiasco is growing for Labour. Firstly they raided the public kitty to pay for it, then they couldn’t even scare up a happy kiwi family for the photo and then it is found that Labor in Australia used the same image and now it looks like Labour have again breached their own law for failing to declare within 10 days the “donation” from Parliamentary Services of the costs of the pamphlet.

I think it is time these pricks were prosecuted.

It also again shows how inept these fools are when it comes to passing laws. They ignored the vast majority of submissions, they ignored the Human Rights Commission, they ignored the calls from the “ramshackle PR fiasco” that is the Free Speech Coalition. Everything we said would happen under this law has happened, the irony of it all though is it is Labour who have breached the law in almost every instance.

The only ramshackle PR fiasco to do with the Electoral Finance Act is Labour.

Labour’s much vaunted Law of “Common Sense” is starting to unravel.

Unfortunately for Annette “Full Moon” King the courts in new Zealand operate by the rule of law rather than her imaginery Law of Common Sense.

Consequently the complaint started by David Farrar then taken over by National to have the EPMU decision of the Electoral Commission overturned has been successful in the High Court.

Oh how the ribs are hurting, our so-called ramshackle PR disaster hits home again.

Now I shall pray to the good Lord that Labour tries to rush through an amendment….pleeeeease God let them try it.

Oh and BTW the union just had a zero wiped off of how much they can spend propping up Labour.