KEY POINTS:
All references to a "Labour-led Government" were deleted from the Government's press releases on the Budget for fear of breaching the Electoral Finance Act.
Finance Minister Michael Cullen confirmed yesterday that on the basis of legal advice the term which has peppered Budget press statements in previous years was dropped.
Instead, they refer simply to "the Government".
"We were advised that the use of the term 'Labour-led' in the Government releases could be seen as coming under the Electoral Finance Act and obviously that would not be appropriate because they were Government publications, not Labour Party publications."
The decision was made after Treasury received Crown Law advice on the 900 media packs it funds and disseminates containing a wad of press statements from ministers.
It believed the term could be seen as promoting Labour and could therefore meet the new definition of election advertisement under the act.
That would have meant that the material should have been authorised by Labour's general secretary and financial agent, Mike Smith, and possible prosecution of the Secretary of Treasury, John Whitehead, because Government departments are banned from publishing election advertisements.
"It would be a bit strange to have a sort of Government Budget publication authorised by Mike Smith," Dr Cullen said yesterday.
Asked if he thought it was absurd that the law forced the term to be dropped from Budget statements, he said: "I shall have to abide by the somewhat rigid interpretation of people involved in this."
Dr Cullen's own Budget speech contained the term twice but he said he had received advice that because it was a speech in Parliament, parliamentary privilege applied.
A group of about 40 people demonstrated against the act in Auckland yesterday outside the hotel where Prime Minister Helen Clark delivered a post-Budget address.
