Labour to legislate to over-rule Auditor-General

I never thought I would read this in NZ. Michael Cullen plans to introduce legislation so that Labour do not have to pay back the $446,000 pledge card which has been deemed election advertising by almost every competent authority in the land, such as:

* Chief Electoral Officer
* Electoral Commission
* Secretary of Justice
* Auditor-General
* Solictor-General

NZPA quotes Dr Cullen as saying on National Radio today that Parliament may have to “validate the expenditure”.

If this is not corruption, what is?

All the spin about how this is necessary to validate almost 20 years of expenditure is not the opinion of anyone in authority, just of the MPs affected. It is an untested assertion which if the MPs think is true, they could test in court.

If they do introduce “validating” legislation they sure as hell better not pass it quickly under urgency. I for one want to make a select committee submission, and I suspect so will tens of thousands of other people on this.

It’s ironic. You buy the election by deliberating over-spending. And then you use your continuance in office to amend the law to validate what you did.