SST on Boscawen

The Sunday Star-Times has an article on John Boscawen.   An extract:

Justice Minister Annette King said Boscawen had not been upfront about the fact he was a former “bagman for the Act party”.

“In some ways this reflects some of the campaigns we have seen in the past. Why wasn’t he honest enough to say `I’m John Boscawen and I’m an Act supporter and I’m an Act financial backer and obviously I’m proud of that’,” she said.

Boscawen, an associate member of the Business Roundtable, said he had not hidden the fact he had been a fundraiser and office holder for Act. But he said his campaign was a personal one, not a party one. “This is a huge amount of money for me. My motivation is very, very simple. This bill goes to the heart of democracy.

The notion that John has hidden his affiliations is laughable.  In his submission to the Select Committee on the Bill, he refers to his work as a previous fundraiser for ACT. His (associate) membership of the Business Roundtable is listed on the BRT website.  He has referred to his involvement with ACT in many of the ads he has run.

The article also refers to plans for next year:

And if the bill is passed next Thursday as the government expects? From the beginning of 2008, Boscawen would not be prevented from continuing his campaign.

But he would have to appoint a financial agent and be barred from spending any more than $120,000 over election year.

But Boscawen says he has a cunning plan to get around that cash barrier. He is considering registering as a political party, which requires him to have 500 financial members. That way his spending limit would be a rather grander $1.2 million.

It is a measure of how draconian the law is, that it will seriously restrict people campaigning against those who voted for the law.  MPs who vote for it, will benefit from its provisions.