Review call for funded government advertising

The rules surrounding taxpayer-funded government and parliamentary advertising are weak and need reviewing, an Auditor-General's inquiry has found.

Government ministers, departments, Crown entities, parliamentary party leaders, their staff and members of Parliament can all use public funds for publicity and advertising - provided the money is not used to pay for political parties' publicity.

But the Auditor-General's report says that because of changes in advertising practices, an increase in advertising by Parliamentary parties and the influence of the MMP system, this principle is being eroded.

The report said it was increasingly difficult for Government departments to keep their advertising free of benefit to political parties.

It cited as an example confusion that surrounded the advertising of the Government's Working for Families programme.

The Ministry of Social Development and the Inland Revenue Department issued ads to tell the public of the changes to benefit entitlements, and the Labour Party also issued publicity about the programme, funded from parliamentary sources, which contained "explicit party political content".

Some people who got both sets of advertising were confused and contacted the Auditor-General's office.