IRD fibbed about brochure which might breach EFA

A fascinating story by NZPA in the Herald:

Inland Revenue canned a KiwiSaver brochure because of fears it would be used for electioneering, despite at the time saying it was pulled for commercial reasons.

This came after Mike Williams endorsed the suggestion of a Labour NZ Council member to use IRD brochures to electioneer.

Mr English said the IRD should come clean and release the scrapped brochure.

Yes they should.

And also of note:

Solicitor-General David Collins, QC, told MPs that advice and legal action concerning the act had created a significant workload for the Crown Law Office.

This was due to departments taking a cautious approach and seeking advice on the law and whether they would be breaching it.

The office was also involved in two court cases, and another was to begin shortly. Dr Collins said he was also aware of a number of other upcoming legal actions.

But Mr Dr Collins, your Minister of Justice said the law of common sense would apply!

Justice Minister Annette King was also quizzed about why the Electoral Commission was taking so long to respond to a request for rulings on whether material breached the legislation.

Ms King said the commission was an independent body and questions should be put to it.

She said there had been a request for more funding but as far as she was aware the commission had adequate resources.

An IRD spokesman said that it was its job to keep people informed about their obligations and their entitlements.

This is crap. It is outraegous the Government has not given the Electoral Commission more funding. Even if it was a sensible law, the EFA gives considerable extra workload to the Electoral Commission (which was basically just a CEO, a Comms person and someone who answers the phone) which would necessitate extra resource for them. Add on the murkiness of the EFA (which the Commission CEO publicly warned about) and it is somewhat scandalous the Government has refused extra funding.

Back to the IRD:

“We had originally planned for a KiwiSaver information leaflet to go to all households but given the high uptake of KiwiSaver we decided earlier that it did not need to go so widely.”

Well yes as every worker is opted in when they change jobs, and as pretty much every employer gives employees info on KiwiSaver, there would be little need for a pamphlet to every household. I wonder who suggested there should be?