KEY POINTS:
The Auditor-General will ensure that government departments do not engage in electioneering, Cabinet ministers assured today.
MPs continued to ferociously debate the Electoral Finance Bill and its effect on election campaign rules today, ahead of a soon-to-be released select committee report that is said to have widely rewritten the controversial law.
National's deputy leader Bill English today quizzed Justice Minister Annette King over whether departments would be given an exemption on their advertising campaigns.
National has argued that a wide ranges of advertisements will be caught under the Electoral Finance Bill from January next year and departments will need an exemption to run adverts.
They have further claimed that this will mean the Government will use those campaigns to push policy.
Mr English asked today whether Ms King believed departments "multi-million dollar" advertising campaigns for next year would be caught by the bill.
Ms King said she did not believe so.
"Government departments will not be caught because they will go the Auditor-General to have their advertising cleared," Ms King said.
Ms King would not confirm or deny whether there would be a exemption for departments, but said they were not allowed to take part in election campaigns.
Prime Minister Helen Clark has said that government departments would "bend over backwards" to ensure advertising in election year would not be construed as electioneering, but this has not satisfied her opponents.
National Leader John Key said the Health Ministry was planning a significant election year campaign to advertise low doctors fees.
Mr Key said in the last election year - 2005 - government funded advertising had reached a record high of $69 million and he believed this would be repeated again in 2008.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen said the 2005 spend-up had mainly been due to ensuring people applied for their entitlements under the Working for Families package.
Dr Cullen also said any advertising by departments would have to be cleared by the Auditor-General.
Dr Cullen told journalists significant changes were being made to legislation and people should wait to pass judgement until these were revealed.
He also suggested the Human Rights Commission, a critic of the proposals, would be satisfied with what it saw when the Electoral Finance Bill was reported back to the Parliament.
The bill has been before a select committee and Dr Cullen said the legislation would be reported back "I think this week".
The select committee considering the bill met on Monday to try and finalise its report to Parliament, but NZPA understands little progress was made and it will meet again on Thursday.
The New Zealand Herald yesterday devoted its front page to an editorial saying democracy was not a device to keep the Labour Party in power.
It also ran a series of articles about the proposed law in today's newspaper.
Dr Cullen said the last time the Herald ran a campaign of this sort, it was on the smokefree environments legislation.
People should wait until the bill came back to the House before "interviewing one's typewriter about what the changes are likely to be".
"There will be significant changes," he said.
"And I hope that you'll report what the Human Rights Commission might say about the bill as reported back."
Ms King said she had no doubt the select committee had listened to some very weighty submissions, including the Human Rights Commission and the Law Society.
The Human Rights Commission and Law Society have condemned the bill as a massive attack on freedom of speech.
"The Parliament will decide the shape of this bill at the end of the day."
"The bill is not done and dusted until it comes out of the select committee, changes would have been made and then the Parliament itself at the committee stage as a whole can still make further changes if they want to. This bill at the end of the day will reflect what politicians in this place vote on," Ms King said.
- NZPA
