KEY POINTS:
A rare intervention into political commentary by the Prime Minister's husband, Peter Davis, has been condemned by National as showing the Clark household is out of touch with New Zealand.
Dr Davis, a sociology professor at the University of Auckland, wrote a letter strongly condemning the Herald's series on the Electoral Finance Bill.
Professor Davis said the last time he had seen the Herald so exercised about free speech was when the newspaper unsuccessfully opposed restrictions on tobacco advertising.
"The Electoral Finance Bill does not diminish 'free' speech," Professor Davis wrote in the Weekend Herald.
"It restricts speech that is 'purchased' through advertising - and only in an environment that is electorally sensitive.
"I would be concerned if 'free' speech was being constrained but limits on the rights to 'purchase' speech are justified to protect our democracy from money politics, although I can see it might hurt the Herald's bottom line."
National deputy leader Bill English said Professor Davis' letter was a case of someone shooting the messenger.
"Professor Davis supports Labour's grab for tens of millions of taxpayer money to win the election at the same time as heavily restricting anyone else who wants to take part in politics," Mr English said.
"It is the Labour Government which will be able to purchase advertising on a massive scale to push its policies, yet anyone who wants to run a cake stall is treated with suspicion and hemmed in with new and complicated rules."
Helen Clark today said she did not know of the letter until she read it in the Herald.
She told TV One: "He doesn't need my permission to do it, the first I knew about it was when I opened the Herald on Saturday.
"I am left wondering whether Bill English would bother issuing a press statement about any other letter to the Herald, and I think it's a bit rich for someone who constantly complains whenever his family is brought into the limelight."
Professor Davis rarely becomes involved in politics, but last year was dragged into the centre of the political stage after newspapers and Investigate magazine published articles about his private life.
It later emerged that the Exclusive Brethren religious group had hired private detectives to investigate Professor Davis and leading Labour MPs.
The Exclusive Brethren funded an expensive anti-Government and anti-Green campaign during the last election, a motivating factor behind the drafting of the Electoral Finance Bill.
On Saturday around 2000 people demonstrated in Auckland against the bill. A similar protest is planned for Wellington on Wednesday.
March organiser John Boscawen was thrilled by the turnout and said he hoped the Wellington march would be even better. Further marches would be organised if the bill was not scrapped, he said.
"This is not about being opposed to electoral reform. I would like electoral reform ... but the process is wrong.
"It's quite reasonable that people want openness and transparency in elections. New Zealanders have an inherent sense of fairness, so when someone spends $1 million under the radar they think that's cheating ... but because New Zealanders have a sense of fairness, I think that is why they are rising up in this protest."
Details of the bill, which will introduce new rules governing what people can and cannot say during election time and how much money organisations and political parties can spend on campaigning, will be revealed today when the justice and electoral select committee reports back to Parliament.
The select committee is expected to recommend several controversial aspects of the bill - such as the limits on registered third-party election spending - be retained, but dollar limits increased.
Anonymous donations to political parties are expected to remain, with the Electoral Commission asked to scrutinise donations.
TODAY
* The Electoral Finance Bill is due to be reported back by a select committee, and the Government will again be beaten with a rod it made for its own back.
* The second reading, committee and third reading stages of the bill are expected to produce the most bitter and divisive debates this parliamentary term.
