Electoral Finance Bill Must Change

Federated Farmers has joined calls for sweeping changes to the Electoral Finance Bill.



Appearing before the justice and electoral select committee today, Federation president Charlie Pedersen said the Bill went too far and contradicted one of its key stated purposes: to promote participation in parliamentary democracy.



“The Bill is seriously flawed and requires significant amendments so as not to constrain the ability of non-governmental organisations like ours from engaging in policy debates – including taking action on behalf of our members. This is surely not the intention of the Bill’s drafters and today we urged MPs to address these concerns,” Mr Pedersen said.



“Policy advocacy is a crucial aspect of Federated Farmers’ work on behalf of its members. The nature of policy advocacy means taking public positions on proposals put forward by the government and opposition parties, often during an election year.



“This can both be through day-to-day activities like submissions, articles, speeches and media statements but we also undertake more active campaigns on specific policy issues of great concern.



“Previous examples of campaigns include the FART tax, walking access, and dog chipping. Efforts to reform the local government rates system and the RMA are currently in progress and may become more visible over the next 12 months.



“I want to make one point very clear. Although we take public positions on policies the Federation does not encourage its members or the wider public to vote or not to vote for any political parties or candidates for election.



“We are about policy not politics but our interpretation of this Bill is that it will severely constrain the activities of policy-focused lobby groups which have a critical role of representing their members in the democratic process.



“Organisations like ours have been told by the Minister of Justice that this is not the intention and that the government is considering changes to the Bill to address our concerns.



“We shall see but from our perspective this Bill as it is currently written is hugely flawed – some might say offensive – and it requires a major overhaul in the way it treats third parties.



“Our most significant concerns relate to the regulated period, the meaning of an election advertisement, the definition of a third party, and the provisions on third party elections expenses.