Taxpayer Funded Electioneering
December 9th, 2010 at 3:00 pm by David FarrarThis pamphlet would definitely count as electioneering if done during the regulated period. The rules before the regulated period are less strict, but I wonder if even under those rules whether this qualifies. To qualify it must “have a parliamentary purpose” and “not contain electioneering”.
Electioneering is defined outside the regulated period as “explicitly seeks support for the re-election of a member or party, explicitly encourages party membership or explicitly solicits financial support”.
This pamphlet pushes those boundaries to the max. I am unsure it has a parliamentary purpose – it does not mention Parliament at all, or any specific law. It is basically 100% propaganda.
The front half is simply a photo and what appears to be a campaign slogan.
The second half gets close to soliciting for votes (implicit not explicit though) saying “Things have got tougher under the National Government but Labour has a plan for the people of Waitakere and all New Zealanders”.
There’s a not a single word about what Carmel has done for the community, about how you can approach her office for assistance, about any local issues. It is 100% a rant against National and a list of campaign slogans.
In fact an identical pamphlet could run in every seat. Perhaps that is the case? Has any readers received similar?
Related posts:
- An end to taxpayer funded pledge cards
- Labour’s taxpayer funded campaign
- More taxpayer funded electioneering
- The taxpayer funded axe the tax bus
December 9th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
“There’s a not a single word about what Carmel has done for the community”.
Maybe there’s a reason for that.
BTW, bit of a cock-up in the linking/embedding/thingy department. Its hard to unlease the full force of derision that’s undoubtedly required without being able to read this vitallly important communication from the dreadful bag.
Vote:December 9th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
DPF raises very good questions here. Unfortunately it’s hard to answer them because the parliamentary parties have deliberately made all the rules around these issues so vague and opaque.
It’s also worth pointing out that this could have all been reformed, but instead this National Government has made it easier to use Parliamentary Service budgets for electioneering. The “Parliamentary Services Amendment Bill 2010″ has actually entrenched this type of illegitimate use of taxpayer funding for 90%+ of the time.
For more on this see my extensive blog post entitled “National to entrench backdoor state funding of parties” here:
Vote:http://liberation.typepad.com/liberation/2010/08/national-to-entrench-backdoor-state-funding-of-parties.html
December 9th, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Let’s see if this link works ok (on my screen, the original link is unusable) Labour DLEFlyer
Vote:December 9th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
DPF
It may be the computer I’m working with, but most of what is evident in the cut-and paste part of the post (before your comments) is the programming jargon. Can you re-post it please? Thanks,
Vote:December 9th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
‘Labour has a plan.’
Oh well that’s alright then.
Last feller I heard say something like that was some black arsed jackass on the other side of the world.
Vote:December 9th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
Sorry Carmel, us westies prefer Paula, so piss-off
Vote:December 9th, 2010 at 3:54 pm
“Working for decency” What does that even mean?
Vote:December 9th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
the women in that photo kind look like they are thinking “how are we going to get the kids back off her before she gets hungry”.
What a lot of useless waffle and jargon. does anyone not beleive in higher wages and better jobs?
the main difference is that anyone witha brain knows that government never creates jobs, unless it has destroyed them somewheere else first. i beleive in higher wages, just not through government intervention, that just causes higher wages for less people.
Vote:December 9th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
Carmels channelling Jim Bolger with the Decency line. Wasn’t that the Nats slogan in the ’90′s when he was in charge? “A Decent Society”?
Vote:December 9th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
I received a Christmas card from Charles whats-his-name (Ohariu)
Nothing Christmasy about it, it mentioned Labour a lot, and carried a parliamentary services crest.
I’d post it, only I ran short of cat litter…
Vote:December 9th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
Grendel “What a lot of useless waffle and jargon. does anyone not beleive in higher wages and better jobs?”
Vote:I have just come through a by election where the Labour, Green and independent candidate sprouted an ever growing wish list and sold it as “policy.”
Voters really need to become a lot wiser when chosing their representatives. As you mentioned we all want to see people in better jobs and in drier homes etc. However the wish list only becomes policy when one can articulate how you will achieve your goals and what it will cost. Parties on the right are able to demonstrate how we can achieve these outcomes rather than relying on the ridiculous “government must provide” idea. When will these lefty muppits realise that the government relies almost entirely upon tax extracted from you and I and that by insisting on higher taxes for the so-called rich they are killing the goose that lays the (iron pyrite) eggs.
December 9th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
The problem is in the way these things are funded.
I think all this brochure CRAP is propaganda. The answer is to follow the practice of the US Congress where each Rep (MP)/Senator gets a total allowance in addition to their personal salary. Postage is free, phone is not. There are no air travel or family freebies. Any air travel paid for by the US taxpapayer must be on a scheduled US AIR FORCE DV flight (exception in th lame duck Congress – Nancy Pelosi!). The allowance covers everything – no exceptions.
The effect would be that Helengrad et al could have spent, say, $500,000 in total each year. She would have to fund LP “researchers”/hacks from the total sum and not divert the cost of salaries to “Parliamentary services”.
Can we please, at the same time, have details of all salaries and “expense allowances” such as the Parliamentary Press Gallery Allowance, (PLUS INCOME FROM RATS) for all political scribes/talking heads. (Goose & Gander!)
THEN, AND ONLY THEN, WOULD WE HAVE SOME BALANCE.
Vote:December 9th, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Probably a bit harsh making our MPs use scheduled airforce flights. Could be a long wait!
Vote:December 9th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
Flipper, bulk funding for political parties. Good call.
Vote:MMP has lead to an environment where we vote more for parties than for people. I don’t pretend that under FPP people voted purely on the candidate but now, under MMP, it’s all about the party. And thus there is less onus on a political party to select men and women of character as candidates. And so we get the dross of political machines. I guess Chauvel must be a good lawyer but he lacks the character to govern for the common good, and he is not accountable to the voters of NZ.
So, its seem now that we’ll have to regulate parliamentary spending because we cannot trust the elected representatives. This is not a good omen.
December 9th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
“There’s a not a single word about what Carmel has done for the community, ”
A picture is worth a thousand words.
She has obviously done a lot to create jobs for her constituents at KFC and Macca’s.
Vote:December 10th, 2010 at 7:21 am
The Labour Party has no money for electioneering. This is despite having millions of dollars in property at its disposal, and the not inconsiderable resources of the Unions at its disposal. So they aggressively push the envelope on the funding they get for Parliamentary purposes. They always have done.
Vote:December 10th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
“Working for decency” What does that even mean?
It means that the party isn’t controlled by the Exclusive Brethren I think.
Instead it’s controlled by groups setup specifically to bully employers to pay workers more no matter how useless they are. You know, decent people.
edited: not all workers represented by unions are worthless.
Vote:December 10th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
I sick of this waste of my tax dollars… It is quite clearly against the rules…
Who do we report this shit too..? The Police..? The Clerk of the House..?
Vote:December 10th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
Voters really need to become a lot wiser when chosing their representatives. As you mentioned we all want to see people in better jobs and in drier homes etc. However the wish list only becomes policy when one can articulate how you will achieve your goals and what it will cost. Parties on the right are able to demonstrate how we can achieve these outcomes rather than relying on the ridiculous “government must provide” idea.
well actually Colin…
i asked you at least 3 times to articulate the specifics of how you would achieve your stated goals/election promises regarding jobs while you were campaigning for Mana not long ago
the only thing you demonstrated was how you could go silent and invisible when challenged, with the outcome being you came off as full of shit
Vote: