On 18 November 2011, the Electoral Commission referred Jolyon White to the Police for sticker advertisements attached to National Party billboards.

It is the Electoral Commission’s view that the publication of each of these advertisements constitutes a breach of sections 204F of the Electoral Act 1993 because they are election advertisements that do not contain a valid promoter statement.

But how curious is it, that a man and a woman riding the motorcycle registered to him were seen vandalising billboards in Christchurch with the stickers?

The most likely explanation is that this Anglican Church employee is lying. And if he is lying about this, why would he be telling the truth about how he arranged the nationwide campaign.

The Greens have not said how many of their parliamentary staff knew about the campaign. We know at least one did. They have said they will not investigate until after the election. This leaves open the possibility that several of their staff knew, or were involved, in the campaign.

will someone deface Labour’s billboards by putting their leader on them?

Think if someone went and made up some huge stickers of Phil Goff and stuck them on all the Labour billboards. They wouldn’t know whether to complain or not!

The Greens have revealed a party member and the partner of one of its staff members were behind the vandalism of 700 National Party billboards.

Co-leader Russel Norman said Jolyon White, who is the partner of his executive assistant, co-ordinated the defacing of the billboards.

First some history, about this. Whale first blogged about the plan for the stickers on 14 October, when he heard about the call for quotes for the stickers. Despite this publicity, the arrogant Greens involved decided to proceed.

Then Whale got sent photos of two motorcycles used in the stickering. From this point it was just a matter of time until those involved were exposed. I should point out that Whale is getting more page views than me at the moment – deservedly so.

So the co-ordinator is Jolyon White, who is the Social Justice Enabler for Anglican Church. Surely the church can not condone one of its staff doing this vandalism?

He is such an arrogant idiot, that he even went on radio boasting about what he did, and it seems some recognised his voice.

But it is the Greens who have the most questions to answer, based on this report:

Norman said his executive assistant had known about her partner’s plans for about two months and he was disappointed with her for not mentioning it.

It was an employment issue but the party had not spoken to Parliamentary services about the matter.

Okay imagine that say Labour party billboards were vandalised all around New Zealand. And it turned out the person who co-ordinated it was the husband of the Prime Minister’s executive assistant, and that the PM’s executive assistant had known about it for two months. Would Labour (or any political party) accept that the Prime Minister knew nothing at all about it? There would be calls for resignations, and for an official inquiry.

If the executive assistant knew about it for two months, and did not tell Dr Norman then it must be a sackable offence. She has failed in her most basic duty of care to her employer. How can the Greens possibly say they are disappointed over this, if they take no action?

I have worked for four parliamentary leaders. If my partner who is a party member did something like that, and I knew about it for two months and didn’t tell anyone in my office, I would absolutely expect to leave the office the day it came out, and not return.

But what the Greens have avoided saying, is who did know. Dr Norman says he did not know, and I take him at his word unless there is evidence to contradict that. But did other staff members in the Greens parliamentary office know? Did any Green MPs know?

And also, who were the 50 activists involved, and how many of then are Green party members or activists? My guess is the vast majority.

A related question is who paid for the commercial printing, and who paid for the distribution of them?

The Greens complained bitterly about the Exclusive Brethren pamphlets in 2005. But at least the Execlusive Brethren complied with the law, and put a name and address on the pamphlets as required.

Green party member Jolyon White has broken at least two laws I would say. The stickers are a form of election advertisement designed to discourage people from voting National. Not only were they not authorised, they were put up in the middle of the night. It is as flagrant a breach of the Electoral Act rules around transparency as you can get. I have no doubt the Electoral Commission will refer the matter to the Police, and hopefully the Police will ascertain how many other people were involved and what roles they hold in the Greens.

There is also the secondary issue of damage and vandalism.

Some will try and claim this was not the Greens, just an isolated party member. But the fact remains that the co-leader’s own executive assistant knew about these plans (and presumably endorsed them), and did nothing to stop them, despite the fact it was obvious if the co-ordinator was identified it would reflect on the Greens. I find it very hard to believe that no one else in the Greens office knew about this.

Remember there is form here. The secret taping of National MPs last election was done by a green (lower g) activist who was living with a Green Party staffer, and Green staff knew he had done it before his identity was made public.

UPDATE: While it is good Russel Norman has said the Greens do not condone vandalism, this press release from 1999 reminds us that they do condone “direct action”, saying it is a right and responsibility.

Protesters are claiming to have made 700 National Party billboards “more honest”  by adding their own slogans overnight.

A statement released this morning from the unnamed organisation said stickers were added to billboards around the country in a “coordinated operation”.

About 50 people were involved in the operation.

Worth thinking about this. This was done in around a dozen cities, which would have involved someone centrally professionally printing the stickers up, having a network of 50 people to deliver them, the ability to send them to key contacts in each area, and then to all have them do it at the same time.

I think it is fair to conclude this is not the work of a couple of students. It is almost inevitable that it was done by people involved in a youth wing of a political party. No one else would have the contact and resources to do this.

Heh. By Adrian Maidment at Scoop.

Their opponents are calling it desperate opportunism, but the Labour Party insists their black billboards are nothing more than a clever way to show support for the All Blacks.

One can show support by blogging about the team. Spending a large proportion of your limited campaign budget on billboards about the All Blacks is about politics, not sports.

About 40 billboards around Auckland and Wellington have recently popped up with white lettering on a black background: “When things look black, we’re at our best.”

Below that in red letters is: “Go the boys.”

The billboard has been mocked on right-wing blogsite Kiwiblog as desperate, and Labour’s campaign spokesman Grant Robertson was not shy about the link to the national rugby team.

“There’s multiple layers of meaning. We want to show some support for the All Blacks.”

The message was not meant to convey that Labour was close to toast this election, he said. “We’re facing a significant challenge. We recognise that. We think we can win.

“People shouldn’t be reading deeply into the tea leaves … We’re showing support for the All Blacks while having a light-hearted poke at ourselves at the same time. …

The billboards were put up within hours of being conceived, but Mr Robertson did not have the exact cost of the billboards.

Labour are trying to have you believe that this was almost done on a whim. First of all I seriously doubt any billboards were up within hours of being conceived. I’ve stuck billboards up and you need to generally get artwork in days in advance so skins can be produced, and then dried off. And then after that specialists have to put the billboards up.

As for the costs, the minimum tends to be $2,000 a month. Some sites can get close to $5,000 a month. And ballpark production costs are $1,000 per board to produce the skin and stick it up. So those 40 billboards would have costed Labour around $120,000. So they have spent $120,000 not on promoting their key messages or policies, but in trying to associate themselves with the All Blacks.

Prime Minister John Key’s DJ shows are likely to come under close scrutiny after Labour complaints to the Electoral Commission about a radio segment he hosted last week.

Mr Key hosted an hour-long programme on RadioLive on Friday. It included interviews with a number of celebrities including Sir Peter Jackson and Richie McCaw.

During the show, Mr Key told listeners the hour was an “election-free zone”, and spent the time discussing issues ranging from his cat to Coronation St.

At the time, a spokeswoman for the PM said the station had stipulated the hour had to be free of politics, after advice from the Electoral Commission that political content could breach election rules.

However, the Labour Party is arguing that his stint still broke the rules and yesterday lodged complaints with the Electoral Commission and the Broadcasting Standards Authority.

The PM went out of his way to refuse to talk politics on the show, specifically to avoid it being an election programme.

I actually think Radio Live should have given Phil Goff a one hour show also. Never mind that no one would call in!

UPDATE: The media story referred to billboards. Trevor Mallard has pointed out they are hoardings not billboards. In that case, my cost and time estimates are not correct. Billboards are 18 (and up to 60) square metres in size and are printed on special skins. They need to be put up by specialist crews. A hoarding or yard sign of up to three square metres and is on corflute and get erected on temporary structures or attached to fences.

The terms “billboard” and “hoarding” should not be interchangeable!

• Nice to have – swiss balls
• Nice to have – A website with no HTML errors
• Nice to have – Key rather than that other bloke
• Nice to have – your mum
• Nice to have – a 12 inch c**k
• Nice to have – an original idea, instead of stealing John Ansell’s
• Nice to have – Scott Walker as Governor of Wisconsin
• Nice to have – an opposition leader

My thanks to the PSA for such fun reading.

Heh.

ACT have put up six of these billboards, playing on the Labour ones.

I’d say Blanket Man is definitely a Green voter.

What may happen if Keith Locke is Minister of Finance in a Labour-Green Government!

So if the one on the right is meant to represent Jeanette, does that make Russel the one on the left?

Half the time I was smiling at the thought of Winston driving past this. Half the time I was not enjoing strong gusts of winds and looking semi-petrified. Me and heights don’t go well together.

There were lots and lots of waves and toots of support as it was going up.

The image above is being erected onto a billboard on Hewletts Road, Tauranga at 10 am this morning.

We hope the residents and visitors of Tauranga and Mount Mauganui enjoy it.

It has been planned for some time. It is pure coincidence that it goes up the day after television reveals that Winston aggressively lobbied for Owen Glenn to be appointed Consul to Monaco. But we are very happy with the timing.

Need more be said!

No doubt the young Labour supporter achieved NCEA Level 1.

I asked the EC to rule on the Tui billboards after reading their determination that the EMA ads against KiwiSaver were election advertisements because they can not take into account the intent of the ad – only the impact.

The interesting thing is how close a call they say it was:

As a result the Electoral Commission formed the view that the billboard in question sits just outside of what could reasonably be regarded as encouraging or persuading voters to vote or not to vote in a particular manner, and is therefore not an election advertisement for the purposes of the Electoral Finance Act.

They went out of their way to say the billboard sits “just outside” being an illegal election advertisement. I think it shows hiw far reaching the EFA is, even though it has stopped just short.

Also the EC seems to suggest that Tui escaped only because of their unique place in NZ society:

While there is no exemption for humour as such, because of the long-standing and unique
background of the Tui advertisement series, the Commission does not consider that the billboard in question is likely to have an abiding impact on the thinking of members of the public.

In other words this is not much of a precedent for other satire.

The hypocrisy of Labour and NZ First voting for the Electoral Finance Act on the grounds of transparency around donations, and then having NZ First revealed as having filed false donation returns is too much to ignore. And Helen keeping Winston in the baubles of office despite the Privileges Committee finding that he lied about the $100,000 Owen Glenn donation shows that Helen’s rhetoric around the Electoral Finance Act is as false as Winston’s rhetoric.

So using the very fine creative talents of Mr Ansell and others, we took what had just been a blog billboard, tidied it up, and turned it into a real life one.

And there it is proudly on Ponsonby Road.

There will be one going up in Wellington also, and we have a slightly different one going up in Tauranga which we think will be popular! Stay tuned.

Someone has done well, especially as the billbpoard is a fair way off the ground.

Incidentally doesn’t the Churchillian pose just come across as so pretentious as to be odious?

Labour’s official billboard.

Labour’s new billboard done by Whale and myself to reflect the citizenship scandal

Is there anything not for sale by Labour? Taito Field was allegedly selling off immigration permits in exchange for free work on houses, and now we have allegedly privileged treatment given to an applicant for citizenship who was a Labour party donor.

Keep them coming!

Hat Tip: Whale Oil