Is this legal?
65 Requirements for election advertisements that promote parties or candidates
(1) A promoter must not publish ...an election advertisement that ... appears to encourage or persuade ... voters to vote for a party.
If I said, "Don't vote for a Government that supports Kiwi Made" in a Television advertisement I would be caught by the new Electoral Finance Act. So why should an advertisement that says "The NZ Government supports Kiwi Made" be exempt?
(1) A promoter must not publish ...an election advertisement that ... appears to encourage or persuade ... voters to vote for a party.
If I said, "Don't vote for a Government that supports Kiwi Made" in a Television advertisement I would be caught by the new Electoral Finance Act. So why should an advertisement that says "The NZ Government supports Kiwi Made" be exempt?
posted by Michael at
7:24 PM
3 Comments:
I'm not sure that's right. The Act clearly says "party". The Ad clearly says "Government" and back when I did POLS 101, the government and the party were two different entities, especially when the government consists of more than one party :-)
By
Anonymous, at 9:45 PM
That's dancing on a pinhead. The Act says "appears to encourage or persuade ... voters to vote for a party." Therefore you don't have to mention the party, or a party, to be caught by the Act.
By
Michael, at 11:36 AM
Not really. The ad clearly shows that the Ministry of Economic Development is responsible for the ad, and government departments are required to be apolitical.
At any rate, I agree with "anonymous" - that's pretty much exactly what I thought when I read your original post.
By
Richard, at 10:36 AM
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