Guest Post: Is a third party promoter helping Shane Jones
A reader writes in:
The S.B. Group is a registered third-party promoter set up for the 2023 election.
The Group runs ‘VoteWise‘, an astroturf campaign explicitly focused on promoting Shane Jones’s New Zealand First candidacy in Northland.
The Group is directed by Glenn Inwood (along with Paul Heffernan and Daniel Tither).
A Dom Post article outlines The Group’s links to Voices For Freedom and Inwood’s historic ties to the fisheries, whaling, and tobacco industries. Inwood once was spokesperson for Te Ohu Kai Moana (the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission) when it was shared by Shane Jones.
In an interview with The Platform, Glenn Inwood refuses to disclose The Group’s donors.
According to the Electoral Commission’s Third Party Handbook:
If your election advertisement promotes a candidate or registered party, the full cost of that advertisement counts towards both your expense limit and that candidate or party’s expense limit.
The candidate spending limit is $32,600, which could easily be reached by New Zealand First before any input from third parties.
The S.B. Group appears to be exploiting a loophole in electoral law:
Third-party promoters (who usually run nationwide campaigns) only need to disclose expenses post-election if those expenses surpass $100,000 – which is unlikely in the case of The S.B. Group’s campaign for an isolated electorate seat. This means The S.B. Group can file its expenses as ‘N/A’ and there will be no evidence of any breach in spending limits. (See 2020’s third-party returns for examples of groups doing this for nationwide campaigns.)
Additionally:
You must get written authorisation from a party secretary or candidate before you can promote that party or candidate in your advertising.
Of course, if Shane Jones has not given The S.B. Group authorisation, then he can protect himself by saying he has nothing to do with the VoteWise campaign. But it beggars belief that he is not at least aware of the campaign. The S.B. Group and NZ First appear to be sharing video material for use in their respective ads.
Key questions for Shane Jones:
Are you familiar with The S.B. Group or its VoteWise campaign?
- If so, have you given the Group written authorisation to promote your candidacy?
- If you have not given authorisation, have you asked them to desist campaign activity and comply with the law?