Electoral Commission

Labour is claiming that it was all just a mistake that they failed to declare a donation as required by law.

The Labour Party says it has settled a problem with the Electoral Commission over its party donation returns.

It appears to have broken electoral law by not immediately declaring an over $430,000 donation it received from an estate last year.

The sum has only just turned up in its annual donations return

Labour Party General Secretary Tim Barnett says it was because of confusion as to whether bequests count as donations.

“We have apologised to the commission for that.

“They have accepted our apology, we’ve provided some additional information, and the matter with the commission is now closed.”

I disagree that the matter is closed. It isn’t for them to to decided this, it is a matter for the Commission.

Former Labour Party General Secretary Mike Smith blogged: Of course when Labour thought (wrongly) that National was late declaring a donation – they called for a conviction…

Read more »

The Green/Labour petition opposing asset dales has failed. Despite the thousands of dollars of taxpayers money the Green/Labour parties threw at this petition it has failed, coming up 16,500 signatures short.

The Clerk of the House has released the following press statement:

The Clerk of the House of Representatives Mary Harris has today certified that this petition has lapsed because she cannot be satisfied that the threshold required by the Citizens Initiated Referenda Act 1993 has been met. The Clerk has been assisted in reaching this conclusion by advice from the Government Statistician.  Read more »

Two Conservative party candidates have been referred to the Police by the Electoral Commission for irregularities:

The Electoral Commission has referred the two Conservative Party candidates – former United Future MP and Tauranga City Councillor Larry Baldock and Peter Redman – to the Police for filing false returns in 2011. It has also referred Mr Baldock “for paying, or arranging another person to pay” election expenses in excess of the $25,000 maximum spending limit for candidates which applied in 2011. The penalties include fines of up to $100,000.

Conservative Party leader Colin Craig said it related to advertising the two men had booked on Radio Rhema. Mr Baldock had arranged for the advertisements to be split so 60 per cent were for Mr Baldock and 40 per cent for Mr Redman and their original expense returns had reflected that split.

However, they subsequently discovered Radio Rhema had only run Mr Baldock’s ads so the two men put in amended returns in May last year so that all the costs were in Mr Baldock’s return.

Mr Craig said it appeared to be a genuine error and both men had assured him they had filed accurate returns to the best of the their ability.  Read more »

Far be it for me to argue with a “decent journalist, trained and skilled” but it looks like the 1996 and 1999 elections were all part of some sort of conspiracy to hide reality from the whole of New Zealand.

I say this because a “decent journalist, trained and skilled” like Susan Edmunds in the Herald on Sunday says that Helen Clark was the Prime Minister in 1997:

Helen Clark PM in 1997? – source: NZ Herald

Now I know Wikipedia isn’t acceptable as a source, Bryce Johns said so. However Wikipedia shows the results of both the 1996 and 1999 elections. It is clear there that Helen Clark didn’t become the Prime Minister until 1999.  Read more »

Judith Collins knows how to put the pressure on, she is calling out David Shearer’s little members bill stunt with some blunt facts.

Labour’s little publicity stunt commits them to standing in parliament and telling the people of New Zealand they are prepared to die in a ditch for more troughing MPs to pick our pockets. Good luck with that strategy Labour.

The Justice Minister’s accusing Labour of wanting to increase the number of MPs in Parliament.

Any sort of agreement on MMP reform appears to have fallen away, with Labour announcing it’ll introduce a Member’s Bill to implement the most important recommendations made by the Electoral Commission because it doesn’t trust the Government to do so.

One of the proposals is to increase the number of MPs as the population grows.

Judith Collins says Labour is politicking and questions whether it realises there’d be more MPs under its approach.

David Farrar has crunched the numbers and found that National would have been rooted if the new suggestions for electoral reform had have been in place over the last 18 years.

It makes you wonder why the hell National were so stupid about the referendum last year. Steven Joyce made the call to protect his and John Key’s power at the expense of the National Party in the medium term. In the United Kingdom David Cameron realised the problem and gave the following referendum changing speech.

Joyce wouldn’t even talk to Vote for Change, let alone take a stand on an issue because he was hell bent on protecting his own power. His staff even skite to this day about blocking the Vote for Change people from the National party election night function, despite the fact that they were members.

Talk about myopia. Well, you reap what you sow and now the Electoral Commission is ramming home the advantage to the left.

ᔥ NZ Herald

Sooner or later people are going to realise that when Trevor Mallard ever says anything he is invariably lying or at the very least creating a distraction.

The police have today said there is no case to answer for John Banks:

Act MP John Banks has been cleared of any charges relating to anonymous donations to his 2010 Mayoral campaign.

The police decision to not proceed with charges was disclosed in a letter this morning to Labour MP Trevor Mallard who laid the complaint.

Perhaps the Police might like to get a wriggle on with the 32 outstanding investigations referred to them by the Electoral Commission from the 2011 General Election…many of which are breaches from the Labour party and their MPs.

As for Mallard, I can’t hardly wait for his day in court with Judith Collins when he will finally be held to account for his defamatory comments.

ᔥ NZ Herald

So the Police can act and complete a report on complaints from the Labour party but are yet to even lift a finger to investigate the more than 20 complaints laid by the Electoral Commission, many of which are complaints against the Labour party.

How does that work?

ᔥ NZ Herald

The Electoral Commission isn’t happy with progress from the Police on the matters it has referred to them. They have a good point too, if Electoral Act breaches are not properly investigated or prosecuted then there really is no point in having the laws int he first place. The fact that Labour so outrageously breaches the laws so frequently is proof that they know the Police are toothless and lazy when it comes to doing anything about it:

The Electoral Commission has taken a swipe at the police for an apparent lack of action in investigating and prosecuting electoral law offences and suggests the job be handed over to another agency.

In its report on the 2011 general election, the commission said that although police dealt with simple matters such as dual voting promptly, they did not do so for more complex issues.

“Some are more difficult and complex and the commission is concerned about the priority the police seem able to accord these referrals.”

It recommended the Government consider whether procedures should be strengthened, noting that some of the breaches of the Electoral Act were serious and carried heavy penalties.

“Effective and timely investigation and prosecution of electoral offences is critical to ensuring public confidence in the integrity of the democratic process.”

One possibility was to hand over the breaches to another enforcement agency or a Crown solicitor to decide whether to prosecute.

If we had an Independent Commission against Corruption they could easily handle this.

ᔥ NZ Herald

Watch the opposition parties whine like turbine engines about this:

Police will not lay charges against Radio Live over its decision to broadcast an hour-long programme hosted by Prime Minister John Key weeks before the 2011 election.

Radio Live hosted “The PM’s Hour” on September 30 last year.

It featured Mr Key interviewing famous guests including Sir Peter Jackson and Richard Branson in what was billed a politics-free hour.

The show was referred to police by the Electoral Commission after it found breaches of election rules.

Detective Superintendent Rod Drew said police had considered the findings of the Broadcasting Standards Authority and the Electoral Commission before making a call on prosecution.

“We have determined that there is insufficient evidence to satisfy the requirements for prosecution.