KEY POINTS:
National leader John Key says the Electoral Finance Bill should be ripped up and cross-party talks held based on changes to existing electoral law.
Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday left open the prospect of multi-party talks but appeared to insist that National stop its attacks on the bill first.
"Had the Leader of the Opposition come in here today and tried to make good on his speech about discussions around multi-party approaches, he may have been taken seriously, but his approach in the House today has been completely inconsistent with the speech he gave barely two hours ago."
Helen Clark made the comment in Parliament two hours after Mr Key told the National Press Club at Parliament that the bill was an "assault on democracy".
"This deeply flawed and anti-democratic bill needs to be ripped up and tossed in the rubbish bin," he said.
He dismissed Labour's repeated line that the bill could be amended in the select committee process.
Instead, a genuine multi-party approach to reviewing the rules around electoral financing was needed and should be based on amending the present Electoral Act.
He said National would support a limit on third-party spending and greater transparency for party donations. There should also be consideration given to giving three months' notice of an election.
"When it comes to changing aspects of the electoral system ... the Government has a duty to act in a completely transparent, fair and non-partisan manner. It must scrupulously avoid proposing changes to the electoral rules to favour itself."
The bill was the Government's response to the $1.2 million Exclusive Brethren attack-advertising campaign which supported National at the last election but which was not counted as part of National's election costs.
But the bill's huge coverage has created an outcry from a broad range of third-party groups including Forest and Bird and the Sensible Sentencing Trust.
The bill extends the period during which election ads are regulated from three months to virtually all of election year, applies spending caps and expands the definition of election advertising to include the following: "Taking a position on a proposition with which one or more parties or one or more candidates is associated."
Mr Key said the definition was so broad that a person writing to his or her grandmother saying: "Dear Gran, thanks for your omelette recipe but I don't believe in buying battery eggs," would be considered under the bill to be an election ad.
The public debate over the smacking bill and the foreshore and seabed bill would have been severely restricted if it had been an election year.
Helen Clark told Parliament that Nicky Hager's book The Hollow Men - based on emails of former leader Don Brash - "showed how exposed our democracy is to big money in politics".
"I think it is clear that New Zealand law on big money in politics has been far too open for too long. That is what there needs to be some genuine discussion about in this House."
