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A brick was thrown through the window of a Green Party office in Auckland last night, the party's co-leader Russel Norman says.
Dr Norman told NZPA party staffers arrived this morning at the New North Rd office in the suburb of Sandringham to find the window smashed by a brick after an overnight attack.
He said staff would continue to work at the office and the party would not be intimidated by the attack, which was meant as a protest at the Greens' support for the Electoral Finance Act, which opponents say will cramp free speech.
He said People Power, the same group who threw a brick at Prime Minister Helen Clark's electorate office on New Year's Eve, had claimed responsibility.
"The Green Party will continue to stand up for free and fair elections in spite of this campaign of intimidation being run by some opponents of the Electoral Finance Act," he said.
"Those who attack the offices of democratically elected officials in an attempt to intimidate them are attacking democracy itself."
Dr Norman said the Greens had supported the spending cap on election campaigns in the Act because it did not want power concentrated in the hands of the wealthy. It stood by that view.
Under the Act, which came into force on January 1, anyone spending more than $12,000 on political advertising must register as a "third party".
Those who do register with the Electoral Commission can spend only up to $120,000.
- NZPA
