Fingers point at Act and NZ First, too

Labour and National are not the only parties to have used taxpayer funds to promote their parties.

Act and New Zealand First both produced highly political advertisements during the election campaign that were financed by parliamentary taxpayer funding.

New Zealand First's ad includes a foreshore photograph featuring leader Winston Peters.

It is sometimes referred to as the "poo-on-the-shoe" ad because it is unclear why Mr Peters is looking at his shoes, and drew puzzlement even from the party's new president, Dail Jones.

Mr Peters in Parliament yesterday tabled the Act newspaper advertisement headed, "What Act brings to Parliament."

It featured all the Act MPs at the time and policy achievements listed under headings "principled, tough, forward thinking, straight talking aspirational".

It has a parliamentary crest on it which denotes it is taxpayer-funded.

Mr Peters said he presented the poster to show that taxpayers were getting no value for money and that it was "a total disaster."

But Mr Peters also used parliamentary funding for a pamphlet titled: "Introducing a Man for a Change".

It says New Zealand First and Mr Peters "urge your support for the following policies ... " then lists two dozen of its key policies.

It also features a parliamentary crest.

The photograph was also widely used in party-paid literature calling for people to party vote for New Zealand First.

Act leader Rodney Hide said last night he had sought the approval of the Parliamentary Service before running the ad because he had not wanted to become caught in the closing days of the campaign with negative publicity over it.

"Whenever I have used taxpayers' money I have checked with the authorities and got the okay.

"If people have a problem with the rules, they should change them because I was within them."

He said Mr Peters' actions when his own literature had been taxpayer- funded was "classic Winston".

"He says one thing and does another, attacks people then does the bigger crime."

Labour has been accused of misusing taxpayer money by paying for its pledge card and a large pamphlet from the parliamentary leader's fund.

The original complaint to the chief electoral officer was made by a former Act MP, Stephen Franks.

While the Labour card did not explicitly solicit votes, the chief electoral officer deemed it to be electioneering material and therefore a declarable expense to the Electoral Commission.

The material was declared on Labour expenses returns, but the cost of the material pushed the party over its statutory spending limit and so it is being investigated by the police.

Mr Hide said that if the chief electoral officer had deemed his ad to be electioneering, it would not matter because Act's spending was well within the limit.

National leader Don Brash in Parliament repeated his call for Prime Minister Helen Clark to repay the cost of the card and pamphlet to the taxpayer, and produced a mock-up of a Labour Party cheque for $446,815.