Coalition For Open Government, New Zealand

Please spend a few minutes to make a difference to a new law tackling the influence of big money and secret money in our elections. Just click the link below to have your say to the Parliamentary committee overseeing the law. Public pressure is vital to ensure we take secret money out of our elections.

The Electoral Finance Bill is the biggest rewrite of the election laws for years – with over 150 clauses – including good parts, technical parts and disappointing parts. Some sections matter most of all and we urge you to have a say about them.

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Among the many innovations in the Electoral Finance Bill is a move to update its reach to a more modern age. The current law was written in 1993, but much of it was ported from the 1956 Act that preceded that. Times and technology have changed, but our electoral laws haven’t – and the Government wants to use this opportunity to update. Advertising isn’t what it used to be – the methods are different, and more varied – and a lot of what a modern campaign involves just isn’t covered in the law.

So what’s the change? In short, whilst the Electoral Act regulates “advertising”, the Electoral Finance Bill would regulate “any form of words of graphics”.

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