Government funded advertising
The Electoral Reform Bill is only one half of Labour’s proposed re-election plan. They couldn’t quite find a way to say no one but Labour can spend much money next year, so instead they put in draconian restrictions on third parties and political parties, while simultaneously planning a series of Government funded publicity campaigns which will swamp the airwaves.
National in Parliament yesterday tabled comments showing how taxpayer funded call centres will inform people asking that “The Labour-led Government has invested $2.2 billion over the past six years to help make primary care more affordable for everyone”.
Now let’s not pretend that anyone is a virgin when it comes to Government publicity campaigns. They occur under all parties, and will do so in the future. And some are very necessary, while others less so.
I’m not particularly convinced that one needs three years of television ads telling people it is now cheaper to visit the doctor. One could do a much better job with a personalised direct mail letter, giving people local details of PHOs etc.
September 19th, 2007 at 6:28 am
The sahpe of things to come. Key should go on the tv and explain this situatuin to mr and mrs joe public. Also run billboards to expose this sham pronto.
September 19th, 2007 at 6:30 am
Mr Key waved the documents around in Parliament and said the purpose of the Electoral Finance Bill was to limit the amount of money opponents could spend in election year “while at the same time the Government spends as much taxpayers’ dollars as it can seeking re-election”.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said the bill was to “stop people like John Key working with people like the Exclusive Brethren to rort election spending law”.
from the Hearald today:
Lets see how often the party line:
the bill was to “stop people like John Key working with people like the Exclusive Brethren to rort election spending law”.
will be parrotted out by thread-jackers today shall we?
September 19th, 2007 at 6:33 am
PS Why didn’t Key ask about the abuse of Human Rights cited by the HRC, is he not allowed to comment on this is Parliament?
September 19th, 2007 at 7:53 am
I’m picking that the General Debate this afternoon might give National MP’s the opportunity to quote extensively from the HRC submission to the Select Committee – in fact, it’d be rude not to!
September 19th, 2007 at 8:06 am
Seriously though, I once asked for any ideas about how this situatuion can be publicised to the public.
National have done a PATHETIC job of doing so, so far. John Key’s approach has played into Clark’s hands and ensured that it remain what she said it was – ‘A beltway issue’. I would further say that Clark’s taunts that Key is a ‘lightweight’ are proving true.
She is running rings around him on this issue.
It’s all very well to come on kiwiblog and let off steam, seriously I ask people out there:
What have you personally done?
Do you have any suggestions about what should or could be done?
Is there a pdf of a stock letter that we could address to our MPs for example?
Can we make our feelings known to the other Parties and their voters?
Are we really going to sit on our asses and watch this Bill pass without public input?
If we do, then we are all guilty should it pass.
Helen Clark has put a unlimited amount of tax-money on this gamble. Her rationale?
“The people will not get excited about this, and I can sneak it through the back door while the electorate is asleep. All I have to do, is accuse National of rorting the voters. The Exclusive Brethren won the last election for me and if I play it right, they will win the next one, as well.”
Surely it is the oppositions job to organise an – well – ‘opposition’?
John Key –
Get some f**kin billboards out there and take out a tv ad! Before it is too late.
John Key – Get your MPs to write to their constituents and explain this BIll before it is too late.
What is it to be JOHN-KEY or DON-KEY the choice is yours. If you want a f**kin donation, to pay for this – I’ll put in $20.00 right now!
September 19th, 2007 at 8:12 am
DO you want to go down in history as another ‘Also Ran’?
If they get their way with this, the full resources of the media will be sued to crush any message you have for the electorate.
Unless you expose the shady cross-party dealings which have created this legislation for what it is,
You will lose the next election.
September 19th, 2007 at 8:12 am
Lee C – i agree. if kiwiblog becomes a substitute for real action then the labour trolls have accomplished their mission. i can’t believe where JK/National are on this… the most important constitutional crisis of my generation and the party i’m planning for vote for is silent !!
September 19th, 2007 at 8:15 am
Take me as a case in point – at the moment you have my vote, but if this very important piece of legislation and the National Party’s handling of it is fumbled (as it is being) I will probably say “F**k it, I might as well vote for the Maori Party…”
September 19th, 2007 at 8:20 am
Is it a case of ‘Don’t send a boy in to do a man’s job?”
I want to see if this guy have the cahones….
Back to my question(s)
What have you personally done?
Do you have any suggestions about what should or could be done?
Is there a pdf of a stock letter that we could address to our MPs for example?
Can we make our feelings known to the other Parties and their voters?
Are we really going to sit on our asses and watch this Bill pass without public input?
personally I am guilty of inactivity So I’m going to do at least one action today to salve my conscience….-
September 19th, 2007 at 8:26 am
Lee.
Patience is a virtue.
The more that labour continue to support this bill, the deeper they dig themselves.
That the HRC has come out against it is just another slap in the face for Labour. The more Labour support this bill, the more slaps they will get. It is in Nationals interest to prolong this debate. Just look at those who are coming out against this bill.
Mike Moore
The Human Rights Commission
Nicky Hagar
Bomber Bradbury.
Now for National, in opposition, this bill is Manna from heaven. The best tactic is to chip away at this bill, and to let Labour continue to support it.
September 19th, 2007 at 8:32 am
In my opinion, Helen Clark and her cowardly Labour cohorts are infringing the human rights of 6,000 people, members of a religious organisation, by targeting them as part of a plot to buy the last election.
7 business men, members of this organisation, without the approval of the organisation, and using their own money legally, ran an advertising campaign as of right.
The EC are used as an excuse for the present EF(M)B, and are used at every excuse in Parliament and in the media as a defense for the presence of this shameful Bill in Parliament.
Shame on Labour for a bullying, cowardly attack on a defenceless people. It is like an attack on a toothless, claw less creature that they are fully aware cannot fight back. Labour are entirely without principles and integrity.
It is a strategy they use to divert attention from their own illegal activities.
September 19th, 2007 at 8:40 am
Well, slightlyrighty, I disagree.
I sent my previous comments to Key himself. Patience is not necessary here. He needs to propose himself and put himself forward as the credible alternative, not sit on his hands, waiting for the tide of public opinion. Next year, when the slick media charm offensive goes on air, he will be defeated on numbers and cross-party alliances unless he can show himself to be the best guy to team up with.
September 19th, 2007 at 8:43 am
you think Helen Clark hasn’t had a psychological peofile of Key drawn up so she can play this one to the nth degree. Gotta wake up and smell the brown-stuff boys!
September 19th, 2007 at 8:44 am
yes Frank. they are horrible people, but what can be done by the likes of you and I other than chattering on kiwiblog, to protect our freedoms?
September 19th, 2007 at 8:45 am
If self-immolation is a good tactic, I volunteer sonic or nome….
September 19th, 2007 at 8:57 am
slightlyrightly is more than that, he is absolutely correct.!!
John Key has had a career in getting his timing spot on.
The time for urgency to combat the effects that the EFBill is presenting is AFTER it is passed, after Jan 1st 2008, but before the election.
At that time a good list of consequences of the EFBill will automatically be available.
Only then will the average uninformed voter actually begin his and her awakening.
You Blog commentors are a small group of aware people whereas the mass of voters are politically naive and will respond only when directly and personally confronted with an unavoidable series of examples.
So in the mean time prepare, get reams of paper, lazer printer toner,
use the blog sphere to communicate and get material, use txt messaging lookouts for illicit “news letter” drops in Malls, moving vehicle scatter in city centers even air drops over provincial town, intensifying as Election day gets closer.
No end of fun, but timing IS NOT NOW….
September 19th, 2007 at 9:12 am
Lee C: You have made some very valid points. It is this very apathy on the part of new Zealanders, this lack of pride in our country that enables our politicians to get away with murder.
When there is coreruption permeating the whole of the Justice system and the media is also aware of this, then you have our nation in absolutely dire straits.
That is why I target politicians as: “In the service of the Crown” as these are specifically targeted at politicians in the Crimes Act.
At present as you are aware I have an allegation with the Police Commissioner of Mps Supporting the EF(M)B
September 19th, 2007 at 9:18 am
Sorry, the submission was posted before completion and correction. Anyhow enough said.
September 19th, 2007 at 9:48 am
DPF – please read clause 53 of the bill and tell me how a government department will be able to spend more than $60,000 on election advertising.
They want to run ads on TV – those ads take a position on the proposition that it is good that the Government funds more primary healthcare – this proposition is associated with the Labour Party – TVNZ (the publisher) looks at the ad and says “this is an election advertisement, if we publish it, and the person promoting it isn’t entitled to promote it, we (TVNZ) commit an offence”.
They look at clause 53 – is the promoter of the advertisement entitled to promote it? Cl 53(2) – para (a) – no; (b) – no; (c) – not unless they’ve registered; (d) – only if it’s less than $5000 and there’s a stat dec.
Clause 53 will prevent TVNZ from broadcasting the ad.
[DPF: Graeme I have supreme confidence that the Government will ensure that if any amendments are made,, one of them will be to specifically exempt Govt advertising campaigns, to remove doubt]
September 19th, 2007 at 10:20 am
Labour defies the new law.
Spends as they wish.
Wins election.
Police unable to interpret the law .
Prosecution period lapses.
Not in the public interest to prosecute.
Retrospective legislation as required.
Move on.
Yawn.
September 19th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Totalitarians, that’s all they are.
September 19th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Whilst I can see your frustration Lee, I think that David Baigent summed it up pretty well. The fact that many in the MSM are now starting to question and criticise the EFB is an indication that Labour has got this seriously wrong.
Whilst I would be delighted to see Labour Kill the Bill, the long-term damage to Labour will be far greater if they hang tough and ram this insidious, devious and obnoxious piece of legislation through the House. I agree that National is better to chip away as they have been. It’s been noticeable that in the most recent session of the House, Mark Burton has been kept pretty much on the sidelines, and Labour has put up either Maharey or Cullen to answer on Burton’s behalf. Likewise, the way in which Labour has attacked Key in the last couple of months suggests that they now recognise that he is a major threat to their “rule-for-life” ambitions.
September 19th, 2007 at 10:39 am
As much as I despise this corrupt Labour government I can’t abide the use of any anti-democratic instrument – even of their own making – against them.
September 19th, 2007 at 10:44 am
Isn’t the real issue here that a senior public servant signed off on these messages being used?
What is their relevance to a health information campaign aimed at an individual’s specific health concerns?
Where was public service neutrality in this decision and messages?
September 19th, 2007 at 11:01 am
BUT if the bill passes, won’t that mean that any pposition on shich a Labour MP takes a position during the Election year will essentially be off-limits to public debate? And won’t the government be using the Television media as its personal propagand arm to publicise its ‘triumphs’ such as ‘working for families’ ‘doctors fees’ ‘kiwisaver’ etc to such an extentwhile National’s attempts to argue will be severely restricted by law?
The idea of being patient precludes the fact that the freedoms we now experience to debate politics will no longer be available to us during an election year.
It’s like having a successful army invade another country, only to find its lines of supply have been cut. Then all that needs to be done is – nothing – simply starve it out. This is what the EFB will do to National.
September 19th, 2007 at 11:14 am
krazykiwi – I wasn’t referring to National using the EFA against Labour once elected. Rather, I was referring to the large hole that Labour is digging, spade-full by spade-full, from which it is going to be impossible for them and their support parties to climb out once this deceitful Bill becomes law. That’s the “long-term damage” I was alluding to. Labour could face electoral annihilation next year, and if they take Winston with them, the world will be a better place!
September 19th, 2007 at 11:16 am
insider said “Where was public service neutrality in this decision and messages?”
Public Service neutrality died, and was firmly and finally buried when Dr Mark Prebble “forgot” the conversation he had with Benson-Pope over the Setchell affair.
September 19th, 2007 at 11:29 am
For propoganda to be effective it must be uncontested.
September 19th, 2007 at 11:35 am
If this bill is passed, I look forward to a number of people being prosecuted for the abominable crime of speaking their mind on political issues via a media campaign.
I wouldn’t mind being one of them
September 19th, 2007 at 11:47 am
slightlyrightly – agreed. i noted elsewhere that i not given to having overdue library books… but this repugnant law will have me trying to get myself arrested as often as possible.
September 19th, 2007 at 11:57 am
krazykiwi – you can’t be arrested for committing any of the breaches of the EFB you’d want to consider committing.
September 19th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Slightlyrightly, I’ll be available to provide a credible alibi at any time! (Being a twin is kind of neat, innit!)
September 19th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
No, but I’d rather not see the farce that was played out when the Better Half and I were on holiday in Sydney earlier this year. I guess it was pure coincidence that millions of dollars of not very informative ‘public information’ campaigns just happened to hit the airwaves as the state election campaign kicked into high gear? Yeah right…
And has anyone come away from any of the Kiwisaver ads any the wiser?
September 19th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Very good point from Bill english during question time.
These statements, when made by the health department, are allowable under this proposed bill.
If these statements were made by the Labour Party verbatim, then they would be classed as electioneering.