National broke election rules

National's Taxathon ad is thought to be at the centre of a complaint against TVNZ.

The Electoral Commission has laid complaints with the police against the National Party and TVNZ for suspected election broadcasting offences.

National yesterday confirmed it had breached the Broadcasting Act by spending $112,000 more than it should have on radio and television advertising during the election.

President Judy Kirk described it as a "genuine mistake", saying a misunderstanding between the party and its advertising booking agency was responsible.

The agency booked radio and television advertising for the campaign assuming the party's $900,000 broadcasting allocation - determined by the commission - was GST exclusive.

In fact the allocation is GST inclusive.

The party discovered the error when reconciling invoices and had approached the commission in an effort to resolve it, she said.

Police have yet to decide whether to lay charges, which could result in a maximum fine of $100,000.

A commission spokesman said the two complaints against TVNZ involved separate issues.

The first related to the broadcast of a National Party advertisement between other parties' campaign opening addresses, which was in "apparent contravention" of the act.

The second was a joint complaint against TVNZ and Keith Houston of Care Vets, Hamilton.

The complaint alleged TVNZ broadcast an election advertisement not from a political party "advocating voting against a party", also in contravention of the act.

Both the latter complaints also carry maximum penalties of $100,000.

The commission said another political party was also likely to be referred to the police for similar overspending, but would not confirm which party it was.

All other political parties in Parliament yesterday ruled out overspending, with the exception of New Zealand First, which did not respond to the Herald.

One political source suggested it might be the Democrats.

Police yesterday were unable to confirm whether charges had or would be laid in relation to any of the complaints, but Mrs Kirk said none had yet been.

TVNZ was last night unable to provide immediate details of the complaints against it, which were lodged in late September.

The National advertisement run by TVNZ is believed to be the "Clark/Cullen taxathon" - a takeoff of the old Telethons, which ran for the first time on the evening of the opening campaign addresses.

The advertisement added an election spin to the old Telethon jingle: "Thank you very much for your high taxation, thank you very much".

If the charges are laid and the party fined, the Government might be tempted to retaliate with the old jingle.