Govt to limit lobby group election campaign spending

Justice Minister Simon Power. File photo / Sarah Ivey

The Government will limit what lobby groups can spend on election campaigning in its redraft of election finance laws despite strongly objecting to such a limit in 2008.

Justice Minister Simon Power said after discussion with other parties, the government had agreed to a $300,000 limit on what third parties could spend during a three month period before the election.

The change is included in the select committee's report back today of the Electoral (Finance Reform and Advance Voting) Amendment Bill.

The current cap after which donations must be openly disclosed will also be lifted from $1,000 to $1,500 for individual candidates and from -$10,000 to $15,000 for donations to political parties.

The rewrite of electoral laws followed the repeal of the controversial Electoral Finance Act which Labour introduced to strong opposition from National in 2008.

That law set a $120,000 limit on what third parties could spend on election advertising in an election period, which was from January 1 of an election year.

The government's initial introduction of the new law this year proposed no limit, although high spending promoters were expected to register.

However today Mr Power said it had now agreed to the $300,000 cap partly to ensure broad political consensus.

The cap would only apply during the three month election period, rather than from the beginning of an election year as under the old Electoral Finance Act.