An Election Advertsiement?

Over at Kiwiblog and The Standard, there is debate over whether the Electoral Finance Act covers the half page advertisements the EMA ran in todays papers criticising proposed legislation that means renumeration cannot be different because of the Kiwisaver legislation.

Essentially, the cost of the advertisements will certainly exceed the Third Party limit - so if the advertisements were Election Advertisements then the EMA should have registered as a third party to comply with the Electoral Finance Act (EFA).

In my view, the adverts are not covered by the EFA, as they do not ask or appear to encourage anyone to vote for (or against) any party. This is the test of the EFA - you can freely criticise policy only - but have to stay away from parties. No release or advertisement from the EMA mentions the Labour Party, only the portfolio of the Minister of Labour gets mentioned.

If the Advertisements had mentioned the Labour Party, or the Government, then it might have been caught. But the campaign from the EMA has clearly been designed not to be captured by the EFA.