A good turnout in Tauranga

TV3 had an item last night on the successful march of over five hundred people in Tauranga against the Electoral Finance Act, organised by John Boscawen.

I saw the item at the time, and thought it bodes badly for Winston Peters. It was a fairly elderly group of people – probably many former NZ First voters. And one of the speakers, Ralph Maxwell, is not just a former Labour Cabinet Minister but was last year on the Tauranga Executive of NZ First.

Supporters of the Electoral Finance Act claimed it would fade as an issue once it was passed. On the contrary, it has had literally scores and scores of negative stories about it over the last few months, and there is no reason to think this will change before the election.