Comments on: Leaked Electoral Law Changes

By: toby1845

toby1845 — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 00:40:32 +0000

Will a trade union taking out a full-page ad in a daily newspaper be defined as “communicating with their members”?

By: Captain Crab

Captain Crab — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 23:34:28 +0000

Will Labour stop giving monetary incentives for people to join Unions?

By: iiq374

iiq374 — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 22:25:28 +0000

Easy way to use Labours loop hole against them:
Create new Union;
Give every New Zealander on the electoral roll free membership to said Union.
Distribute advertising materials to membership of Union…

By: tim barclay

tim barclay — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 22:19:41 +0000

On Unions giving money to the Labour Party I would insist that each memeber sign that they wish a proportion of their money go to the Labour Party and that the person should have the option to also give the donation to any other political party such as the National Party.

By: Terry J

Terry J — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 20:15:00 +0000

Toms are you a complete winker?.Your Statement that Unions are mass movements you forgot to add that there is no vote with the membership if it is OK to make these large donations to the Labour Party.But hey what’s the problem with that as the party that donation is made to is not asking the voters if it is OK to spend taxpayers money for Elections they are going to legislate the Donations for us and say that it makes democracy above board .Try and get real

By: tim barclay

tim barclay — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 19:26:07 +0000

The Labour Party has never made any effort to raise money from its memebers. That would be hard work and distract from endless discussions about politics and policies. Indeed their efforts to raise the money they stole from the taxpayer shows, that if they put their mind to it they too can raise money. It was just too easy for them to take it from the taxpayer – so they did that instead.

By: burt

burt — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 10:16:50 +0000

Who needs party members, the unions have thousands. We won – you lost – eat that.

By: David Farrar

David Farrar — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 10:05:12 +0000

Don – those large donations are not the only source of funds for parties. National gains a very significant amount of money from its membership drives. If you bring in taxpayer funding, you destroy the motivation for parties to attract members.

By: burt

burt — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 06:17:32 +0000

So retrospective validation of rampant uncontrolled spending is OK but we need to ensure that parties that have more resources can’t spend more during a campaign because it’s undemocratic.

The lefties eh, they really think the public are so stupid that they can’t see that Labour and their poodles validated 14 years of undemocratic elections so that they could stay in power.

We should have immediately had a care taker Govt and a fresh election – this is what would have happened if they really cared about democracy – this piece of drivel legislation also proves they can’t survive without tilting the playing field in their favour. Hopeless spineless unprincipled bunch of tossers.

As soon as this legislation is pushed through (most likely under urgency) NZ will be a sad sad undemocratic banana republic – just waiting for Labour to steal another election.

By: burt

burt — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 06:04:15 +0000

Union good – business bad.

Can I be a lefty now? I think that unions are good but I failed to notice that without business unions would be just a concept. No employment, no employees, no unions.

Oh dear… I’ve just shown more cognitive reasoning that allowed from a lefty… If I promise not to get a dose of reality again can I lead the Labour party ?

By: Horace

Horace — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 06:00:50 +0000

No word yet on how Labour will get the gob-shite that flows from the election spin machine to be believed though.

By: Camryn

Camryn — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 05:59:56 +0000

TomS – You seem to hate so much, that you assume you’re hated back. If it helps you to believe in a “capitalist conspiracy” then, well, go for it. It’s sad though. If you dropped the blinkers for a while, you might realise that the majority of National supporters simply believe in people, and that they’ll make the right choices for society and themselves without being forced into it. Capitalistic fatcats plotting to create monopolies and enslave the prols? Not so much.

By: sdm

sdm — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 05:44:59 +0000

Nobody can spend money except unions.

Ah yes, you are only allowed to express your political opinion if you are in the pocket of the labour party.

Business is bad……..mmmkay. We wont mention the fact that they employ, generate growth, pay the taxes that the government is dependant on, we will just take away their rights to have a say in the process. “Shut up, pay your taxes”

I am so glad ive resigned from that party, and now see them for what they are…when it looks anti-democratic, smells anti-democratic and looks anti-democratic, it probably is.

Cheers
Scott

By: sdm

sdm — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 05:42:48 +0000

Nobody can spend money except unions.

Ah yes, you are only allowed to express your political opinion if you are in the pocket of the labour party.

I am so glad ive resigned from that party, and now see them for what they are…when it looks anti-democratic, smells anti-democratic and looks anti-democratic, it probably is.

Cheers
Scott

By: sdm

sdm — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 05:39:24 +0000

Nobody can spend money except unions.

Ah yes, you are only allowed to express your political opinion if you are in the pocket of the labour party.

I am so glad ive resigned from that party, and now see them for what they are…when it looks anti-democratic, smells anti-democratic and looks anti-democratic, it probably is.

Cheers
Scott

By: Don

Don — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 05:25:21 +0000

Restrictions on donations and state funding of political parties based on votes are very much linked.

If restrictions on donations are introduced preventing or restricting further anonymous and trust donations, these sources of funding will largely dry up for all political parties (if these donors did not want their donations to be anonymous they would not make anonymous donations). It would then become very difficult for parties to fund campaigning, which would not be good for democracy.

By: Porcupine

Porcupine — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 05:22:20 +0000

The only wailing and gnashing of teeth we hear in this country mate is that of the real workers who labour screws relentlessly – they make Shipton look like an impotent slug.

By: toms

toms — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 04:53:08 +0000

You can accuse me of ranting all you like, but at the end of the day the only people National supporters can blame for tightening of the laws in this area is themselves.

In the 2005 general election they escaped the outrageous corruption charge laid against Labour only because they didn’t spend their parliamentary fund money in the three months immediately before the election. Instead, National was able to fund virtually a permanent election campaign – including that massively expensive billboard campaign – on anonymous slush funds loaded up with cash from Don Brash’s new right mates in the business pluotcracy. Then, when the nonsensically narrow Brady report came out they had the enormous chutzpah to accuse Labour of corruption. And National got away with all of it, with not a little help from the Herald’s ludicrous and hopelessly one-eyed editorial position.

Now, having shown how to shamelessly drive a truck and trailer through the spirit of our electoral law, the same shysters of the right are going to start up their chief on-line bleeter Mr. David Farrar to try and claim they are hard done by victims of a socialist conspiracy.

Poor little rich boys and their cheer leaders seldom make an edifying sight, I don’t see an exception to that rule here.

Labour won despite the best efforts of the real corrupt players – the anonymous funders of National who don’t have the guts to come out and show the voters who is attempting to buy a manufactured consent. Now its time to make sure that sort of breathtakingly cynical corruption never happens again, and I for one am going to sit back with a big cigar and enjoy the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the poor little rich boys of the right.

By: toby1845

toby1845 — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 04:08:57 +0000

Shades of Zimbabwe…….

By: baxter

baxter — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 03:45:27 +0000

The changes proposed will probably go through just as other outrageous legislation has. It is simply a matter of how much Liebour has to offer the required number of poodle parties in order to purchase their principles….I agree with Swift Man Ban all advertising except the manifesto which should be in the form of a contract, or else have no controls whatso-ever. Certainly no Public Funding, if a group of people want to govern they should have to get out and raise their own money just as charities have to.