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Computerised phone calling by Cabinet minister Pete Hodgson to his Dunedin North electorate on the 20 hours free early childhood education has been cleared as not being election advertising.
Mr Hodgson sought clearance before taking the unusual step of pre-recording a phone message for a computer to call selected households in his electorate. The costs are paid for by Parliamentary Service.
Mr Hodgson said it was a message designed to alert people to an entitlement they might not know about. He does not mention Labour in the call that lasts for 30 seconds.
It is a variation on targeted direct mailing. He tried to target households with children.
The message said: "Hi. I'm Pete Hodgson, your local MP. I'm concerned that some Dunedin families have not yet taken advantage of the Government's new policy for early childhood education, that may mean people don't know about it.
"Every 3 or 4-year-old is now entitled to 20 hours free education or childcare each week.
"If you want to know more, please ring my office on ... Thankyou. Goodbye."
Mr Hodgson said the Chief Electoral Office - which will pre-approve ads for candidates - said they were not election advertisements because they focused on entitlements.
He said that several hundred households had been targeted this week to try and lift the uptake of the free 20 hours. The uptake in Dunedin among those estimated to be entitled had been only 81 per cent.
The response to this week's effort had been very "modest" - only two or three, to say their children were older.
It followed a similar exercise last year when he targeted more than 1000 households with older people about the Government's income-tested rates rebate of up to $500 for the elderly.
He said uptake in the Dunedin area of the rebate increased by 10 per cent last year but there was no way of knowing if it had been because of the computerised calling.
The definition of election advertising under the Electoral Finance Act had been broadened to include any form of words or graphics that could reasonably be regarded as encouraging or persuading people to vote for a particular party through policies "whether or not the name of a party or the name of a candidate is stated".
The act exempts polls and surveys from being counted as an election expense.
