July 30, 2010 10:00am by David Farrar

Anderton wrong on by-election

Anderton said it was “a fair call” on the dual roles of mayor and MP, but the self-confessed “workaholic” said he was more than capable of handling both jobs. “I was a Cabinet minister with seven portfolios and an MP of course I can do both jobs.”

He said that if the Government called an early election next year, as he suspected, rules dictated a by-election could not be held six months out from a general election.

If he quit, that could leave Wigram constituents without representation for several months, he said.

For someone who has been an MP for 26 years, Jim Anderton doesn’t know much about the Electoral Act.

The rules do not dictate a by-election could not be held six months out from a general election. S131 of the Electoral Act merely allows a super-majority of 75% of the House to resolve not to have a by-election if it is within six months of the expiry of Parliament.

Anderton could pledge to resign if he is elected Mayor, and a new MP for Wigram could be in place before Christmas. Instead he is going to run up $500,000 of salaries and expenses.

Parker said the Progressive Party leader was paid $144,500, his party received $200,000, and staff and electorate office costs brought the total close to $500,000.

“Ironically, he has estimated the cost of a by-election as $600,000 to the taxpayer,” Parker said. “He seems to have split-vision on the value of democracy.”

Anderton said his party received no government funding, and all money went into running his electorate operations.

Again Anderton is being deceptive. His parliamentary party receives around$170,000 of taxpayer funding – and this is on top of his electorate operations.