MPs pass law allowing pledge card spending

Members of Parliament have voted themselves the power to dip into the public coffers to pay for material put out on the campaign trail in a move that has sparked more angry exchanges in Parliament.

The vote came just a day after fresh battle lines were drawnover a select committee report rewriting the Government's controversial Electoral Finance Bill, which has attracted stiff criticism as an attack on free speech.

The Electoral Finance Bill clamps down on anonymous donations and imposes a $120,000 limit on the amount that third-party advertisers such as the Exclusive Brethren can spend on ads and campaigns supporting a particular political party.

But its attempt to capture all types of electioneering, including the use of mounted megaphones on party buses, hascreated confusion and has the Government and support parties scrambling to make last-minute fixes before the bill is passed into law.

Meanwhile, the Government's push for parallel laws guaranteeing MPs the right to put out the sort of material ruled unlawfulby the auditor-general after the 2005 election has pitted MP against MP and party against party.

The law, passed last night, extends what were supposed to be temporary rules introduced in the wake of the auditor-generalslating political parties for the way they used their taxpayer-funded leaders' budgets during the 2005 election campaign.

All but one party broke the law, but the heaviest hit was Labour,which had to pay back $800,000. Its pledge card was the biggest item.

The temporary rules were supposed to be replaced with new ones by the next election, spelling out what sort of material might count as electioneering. But parties could not agree.

As a consequence, the Appropriation (Continuation of Interim Meaning of Funding for Parliamentary Purposes Bill) allows parties to put out the same type of material next year without breaking the law and without breaking the strict financialcap on how much they can spend in an election year.

That sparked National Party accusations last night that Labour was corrupt and had "stolen" the 2005 election.

But Labour hit back by flourishing examples of taxpayer-fundedadvertisements for National MPs.

And it accused National of saying one thing privately andanother publicly, after claiming it was National's ideato roll over the existing legislation.

Only National and the Maori Party voted against the legislation.

Parliament is expected to pass the Electoral Finance Billbefore Christmas so the January 1 start date for its new election-year regulations can kick in.