Labour’s taxpayer funded campaign office

An e-mail from Paul Chalmers, Project Manager of Labour House:

We all know whoever wins Auckland, wins the next election.

That’s why Labour Leader, Andrew Little, has decided to open a fully staffed Labour office in Auckland where he and other MPs will base themselves every week.

That strongly indicates it will be funded by taxpayers from their parliamentary budgets. Labour has no money, so I can’t imagine the party is paying for much of it, if any.

The building will also become the centre of the Labour and the progressive movement in Auckland and the place to co-ordinate the local government and General Election campaigns. 

So by their own words they will be running Phil Goff’s mayoral campaign of this taxpayer funded office. Something they promised they would not do.

Does The Parliamentary Service know this office will be used to run their election campaigns from? That is a breach of the funding rules.