2005 New Zealand Election Funding Controversy - Third Party Campaigning

Third Party Campaigning

Shortly before the 2005 election, anti-Labour and anti-Greens pamphlets were distributed to a large number of New Zealand mailboxes. Unlike party advertising, the pamphlets' origins were not made explicit. In particular they criticised Green party policy, claiming that the Greens' policies were "reminiscent…of communists" and the Greens planned to "disarm our forces", terms which the Greens considered to be outright lies - inflammatory and misleading, as was much of the content of the pamphlet. Immediately after the election, the Greens stated that the "... pamphlet drop probably cost the party a seat", and perhaps enough to have governed alone with Labour.

The pamphlets were released with minimal information as to who had funded them, with only the names and PO Box addresses of individuals. Former members of the Exclusive Brethren Church recognised those names and informed the Green Party and the media of their links with the Brethren Church, which had been involved in a similar campaign in Australia. The National party and its leader Don Brash initially denied knowing about the pamphlets, but Brash later admitted that he had met with the Brethren three or four times during the campaign, where he was told "they planned to run some advertisements in the media, particularly around defence and health policies". Brash asserts that he and his staff advised the Brethren to check the legality of their advertising and that National had no control over its content. Brash also says that he did not recall their intention to issue anti-Green pamphlets. Brash and other National supporters noted that unions have funded third party advertising in support of Labour, and argued that the Brethren pamphlets were equivalent. Labour Party strategist Pete Hodgson responded that advertising paid for by unions was declared within Labour's budget and explicit about who had funded and approved it.

University of Otago electoral law expert Andrew Geddis' opinion was that National probably did not break the law, but that the party's actions "stank" and that the electoral system was like "panel beaters designing intersections". In addition to the pamphlets, the Brethren assisted the National Party through help with man-power, rather than direct donations. The group had collected a "war-chest" of $1,200,000, though there is no evidence they spent anywhere near this much during the election campaign. The Exclusive Brethren Church members had originally intended to openly support National but modified the pamphlets to an invitation to "Change the Government" after consulting with the Chief Electoral Officer and being informed that otherwise this would count towards National's spending. The issue of Exclusive Brethren involvement led to Labour calls for compulsory disclosure of large donations to political parties within altered campaign finance legislation.

Activist Nicky Hager felt there were clear distinctions on the legal advertisings of the Unions and what he what he alleged as obvious violations of the election act section 221 by not only the Exclusive Brethren with full knowledge of members of the National party (The Hollow Men: A Study in the Politics of Deception p238), but also third party spending by several other groups including the Horse Racing Lobby. Hager adds rhetorically, "Why was this not picked up by Auditor-General Kevin Brady…?" (The Hollow Men: A Study in the Politics of Deception p240)