Agenda 14 April

A discussion on electoral funding with Labour, Greens, ACT and United Future.

Greens want a cap on donations but Govt not proposing this (due to their $500,000 foreign donor).

It seems (sadly) that the Police will remain the prosecuting authority.

Rodney Hide did a great attack on the secret nature of the process to date – labelled it a jackup of the rules to favour Labour. NZ should be debating the trade-offs like freedom of speech, he said.

Burton seemed to back away from state funding, saying it is less important than having a fair and transparent system. Burton also denies any connection to the pledge card issue (someone tell Chris Trotter that).

Hide was in excellent form on how Labour is trying to build a 61 vote coalition in private, so it can pass the law regardless of what the public says. Also made the point how state funding will entrench existing parties.

Gordon Copeland proposed that only natural persons be allowed to donate to a party – unions and companies would be banned from doing so. If that happened they would donate to lobby groups instead I am sure.

David Beatson attacked the process, as being framed by the Government, not some public body. Russel Norman agreed with him.

I’d call Rodney the best performer. Russel Norman was very strong also. And Mark Burton – well, what can one say.

Agenda TV will have a transcript later today.