The Electoral Finance Bill and the Bill of Rights

One of the mysteries of recent time has been how on Earth the Crown Law Office said the Electoral Finance Bill did not breach the Bill of Rights. The Human Rights Commission and the New Zealand Law Society have strongly disagreed. In fact it is laughable that a Bill which would require a protester to file a statutory declaration for their protest placard could be seen to even be a marginal call for breaching the Bill of Rights.

Now the Crown Law Office is meant to be the custodian of the Bill of Rights. The independent watchdog who blows the whistle on proposed laws which may breach these rights. Yet somehow amazingly they did not do so in this case. The opinion, done by the human rights team leader Val Sim, said the Electoral Finance Bill did not breach the Bill of Rights.

This opinion has been trumpeted in Parliament by Justice Minister Mark Burton. The Human Rights Commission would label it “a dramatic assault on two fundamental human rights” and the Law Society has said it is “inconsistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990” but the Government just paints this as lawyers disagreeing because they have their Crown Law opinion.

The Government also suggested that the Law Commission could help sort of some of the minor drafting issues with the Bill. Nothing majorly wrong – just a few tweaks by the Law Commission.

Now as NBR reports, Ms Sim has this week been appointed to the Law Commission. And who appointed her? None other than Mark Burton.