Due to the current debacle with Labour having overspent their expense limit by over $400,000, but unlikely to face any serious action, with the very minor penalties prescribed in the act, I would like to propose some changes to the law.

First of all, the current election expense limit for party advertising is one million dollars, plus $20,000 for every electorate candidate that the party puts forward (assuming that they are contesting the party vote). This gives a total of $3,400,000 for a party contesting all 120 seats. This limit includes the broadcasting allocation money from the Broadcasting Commission that is provided to parties from the public purse.

In addition, each candidate may spend up to $20,000 on their personal election expenses.

Despite Mike Williams' claim that the definition of is an expense is vague, the current guidelines seem to be fairly well defined, and have been clarified in a number of court cases, the most recent of which was Winston Peters electoral petition claiming that Bob Clarkson overspent (I would link to it but the Ministry of Justice have taken it offline).

Basically it says that any money spent directly on any advertising, or any money spent that encourages or appears to encourage voters to vote for one party or not for another party. In addition, the activity must be undertaken by the party or with the party's authorisation, and it must take place within 3 months of the election (although if it was paid for before the 3 months, but the effects of it carry over, then the amount is included in a proportional manner).

This includes spending on postage, free materials or services provided by a company which must be included at a fair market rate, but does not include money spent on travel, a campaign manager, or other similar staff.

So I think that it is pretty clear that Labour's pledge cards definately should be included, and they probably decided to risk it (despite being warned in advance) due to the low penalties. Consequently I would suggest the following changes to the law:

1. Review the definition of election expense and tighten it if necessary (but I am not convinced that it is).
2. Review the expense limits and determine if they are still appropriate.
3. Remove all funding of political parties from the Broadcasting Commission - set a maximum limit that applies to all parties but they must fund it themselves (at present different parties get different amounts of money, making the system somewhat unfair).
   
4. Raise the penalty for knowingly overspending the limit to:
1. $30,000 each for all individuals who made the decision to overspend.
2. Up to 3 years jail for all individuals who made the decision to overspend.
3. Prevent those individuals who made the decision to overspend from standing for Parliament for 12 years (and expel them from Parliament if they are currently MPs).
   
4. $500,000 + the amount overspent for the party that overspent.
5. Raise the penalty for accidentally overspending without taking all reasonable steps to prevent this to:
1. $10,000 each for all individuals who made the decision to overspend.
2. $100,000 + the amount overspent for the party that overspent.
6. If a party in Government has found to overspent, then a new election must be held within 3 months of the verdict, unless a new Government can be found not including the party that overspent (i.e. if a small party in coalition is guitly of overspending, but the big party can reorganise support with other parties, then Parliament can continue).

I think these penalties would make parties take more care about their expenses. If these laws were in effect at the last election, some of Labour's election committee would face $30,000 fines and the possibility of jail. Labour itself would face a $900,000 fine, and we would have a fresh election.

Posted by Dave Bryant at 10:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)