KEY POINTS:
National has given its conditional support to government moves to clamp down on anonymous political donations and ban third-party election attack advertising.
But National deputy leader Bill English today said the party would draw the line at supporting greater state funding of political parties and also wanted to
see stiffer penalties for parties breaching spending limits - like Labour did at the last election.
Last year's election spawned numerous funding controversies, leading to the proposed rejig.
Among them was an Exclusive Brethren campaign attacking Labour and the Greens, worth up to $1.2 million.
Because the pamphlets did not explicitly endorse National the cost did not have to be counted in National's spending.
National also failed to account for GST in its television advertising spending, leaving several broadcasters $112,000 out of pocket. If National had paid the debt it too would have breached its spending cap.
Since then the Government has begun drafting measures designed to ban third-party campaigns and clamp down on anonymous donations.
National has attacked the proposed measures as an attempt to distract attention from Labour's $800,000 illegal election spending.
But Mr English today said National was prepared to take part in a bi-partisan electoral law reform process, as long as it could bring its own suite of issues to the table and final changes did not favour Labour.
"We are happy to outlaw third-party advertising that attacks political parties, but we want to be sure that the unions - which are the prime participants of this activity going back many elections - are included in any change."
There was also a need for a 90-day pre-election ban on government departments using advertising to promote "the pet policies of the government of the day".
National voiced concern ahead of the last election over government department plans to spend $21 million promoting Working for Families. The campaign was subsequently shaved down to $15 million.
Mr English said it was also "probably time" to tighten anonymous donations, through which National received most of its funding in 2005.
However, he called on Labour to stop accepting "large anonymous donations directly on a 'no questions asked' basis".
Urgent work was needed if the changes were to be in place for the next election, he said.
Prime Minister Helen Clark said on Monday the Government was confident it had parliamentary backing for its changes.
"I think the public wants to know who is funding political parties. They want to know who is pulling strings, if they are pulling strings through funding. [Nicky Hager's book] The Hollow Men really puts the focus back on that issue."
Cabinet was still considering options for reform and was discussing those with other parties.
The Government hoped to introduce legislation next year.
State funding was one of the options on the agenda for discussion with other parties.
Labour president Mike Williams disputed Mr English's accusation.
Last year the party received about $350,000 anonymously, but most of it through lawyers' trusts. He did not know who had donated it, but suspected it came from corporate donors.
That figure was dwarfed by National's more than $1.2 million in anonymous donations last year.
Mr Williams said The Hollow Men conclusively showed Don Brash and John Key knew the identities of key party donors.
Labour MPs were not closely involved in fundraising, he said.
- NZPA
