KEY POINTS:
Given Labour's low threshold for persisting with anything which meets public resistance, the survival of the Electoral Finance Bill would seem to be a minor miracle.
So vital is the legislation to Labour's survival in power, however, the party will likely have the following response to renewed calls for the bill to be scrapped: full speed ahead and damn the torpedoes.
Labour will push on for a variety of reasons, but principally because it believes it has to do so for its own sake and, on balance, can afford to do so.
First, while it continues to argue the bill is all about creating a level playing-field for election funding and spending, Labour is desperate to thwart cash-flush National sustaining a massive advertising blitz throughout election year which the cash-strapped party in power would be unable to match. Labour won't budge on the parts of the bill which handicap National.
Second, Labour has already had to wear heaps of criticism. It may feel it might as well carry on. Pulling the bill would be humiliating. It would be a tacit admission Labour got it wrong and the measure was driven by self-interest.
Third, although the bill attracted some 600 public submissions, it has not provoked anything like the public fury which erupted last year over the revelation that Labour's credit card-sized pledge card was funded by the taxpayer.
To whip up the kind of political storm which can force a U-turn, a political issue must have the following characteristics: there must be clear differences in the positions of the major parties, the public must have strong feelings about the matter, and that opinion must be skewed heavily in one direction.
Labour and National certainly have contrasting stances. Opinion is skewed heavily against the bill. But, so far, the arguments over the legislation have largely failed to penetrate the wider public's consciousness.
The bill is complicated and confusing. It is not sound-bite friendly. Its provisions do not affect most people's lives directly.
Moreover, Labour has indicated some of the most contentious clauses will be watered down or modified. The amended bill - to be reported back from select committee this week - will show Labour has been willing to compromise. That should silence some of the critics, even though the amendments will not affect those parts of the bill Labour wants to keep intact for self-serving reasons.
Fourth, Labour has constantly been on the defensive since the measure was unveiled by former Justice Minister Mark Burton. He and other ministers did an awful selling job on the bill. That will change under new Justice Minister Annette King and her associate, Clayton Cosgrove, who can be expected to be far more on the offensive.
Fifth, the election is still 12 months away. By then, anger with the bill will have dissipated. Or so Labour hopes.
That might well apply to other unpopular measures enacted before election year.
But electoral law is different. By definition, it deals with the running of elections. The blanket restrictions imposed by the Electoral Finance Bill will prompt a hunt for loopholes once it becomes law. It may well be tested in the courts. It might even provoke civil disobedience. One organisation representing manufacturers and exporters has already threatened to ignore it.
The current debate is happening in a vacuum. The failings of the new law may not be fully appreciated until it is actually applied in practice.
Labour and its allies may get their way for now. But the backlash may come when they least want it - smack bang in next year's election campaign.
