The Imported Car Campaign

The Independent Motor Vehicle Dealers Association launched a $300,000 campaign yesterday against the Government’s proposed emission standards.  They’ve done this after a year of lobbying and research has failed.

Now this is what politics is about.  Governments are criticised by lobby groups.  Hell when National were in power there was almost a queue needed for all the groups spending money criticising the Government.

Now one may or may not agree with the Independent Motor Vehicle Dealers Association. They claim the new standards will by restricting the age of imports, raise prices and force people to keep driving “old clunkers” for longer. They have an NZIER study which says:

… the government’s proposed rules “will most likely have the opposite result to what is intended and can be expected to reduce consumer welfare by around $620 million” and “the policy will most likely cause an increase in the number of vehicles in the fleet that do not comply with the proposed standards” and that “the average age of the fleet will rise, indicating that older, more polluting vehicles will remain in the fleet for longer than if this policy is not put in place”.

Now people can form their own views on whether they agree with the Government or the Independent Motor Vehicle Dealers Association.  But the question now has to be asked – would such a campaign be legal next year?

I would suggest that the ad, by labelling Labour’s policy as crazy, would be classified as an election advertisement, and would be illegal.  Even if they register, their campaign would be cut by two thirds.

So election year criticism of the Government will be minimised.