National’s Electoral Law Policy
National has released its electoral law policy, which includes of course repealing the EFA:
- Repeal the EFA immediately after the election
- Reinstate the Electoral Act, as it was before the EFA, but transfer into it the provisions in the EFA dealing with donations
- Reform electoral law through a process involving all parliamentary parties and the public
- Having a binding referendum on MMP by 2011
- Begin a constitutional process to abolish the Maori seats once all historic claims have been settled, which is anticipated to be 2014
It is good that National is retaining the donations provisions of the EFA, while repealing the rest of the Act. This exposes as a lie that National oppossed it because of the increased transparency around donations. In fact National agreed to this in principle way back in 2006. And it was Helen Clark who removed from the draft bill, any significant provisions around increased transparency of donations.
The donations provisions are not perfect, and I would hope they would be part of the overall review of electoral law post 2008. But until that review is done, it is best to keep the transparency obligations while removing all the parts relating to spending, third parties, definition of an advertisement etc.
It is worth remembering that if the Government is re-elected then the EFA will remain. Labour will just make it more onerous, if anything.