Another day; another breach

It's only a matter of less than two weeks since Grant Robertson had to admit that the Labour Party was being investigated by the Police. The party had been referred to the Police by the Electoral Commission over complaints regarding a Stop Asset Sales flyer. At the time, Robertson said this in his media release:

“Labour has advised the commission that it will abide by the commission's interpretation of the legislation. It has withdrawn the pamphlet from circulation, along with another similar publication. Between now and the election, it will apply a wide interpretation of the phrase 'election advertisement', and include formal promoter statements in the terms recommended by the commission on all such material.”

It was reassuring to hear a Labour front-bench MP confirm that Labour would be more careful going forward, and that it would comply with the Electoral Commission's interpretation. There's just one problem; no-one reads Labour Party pressers!

WhaleOil blogs:

After my post yes­ter­day ask­ing for exam­ples of rule break­ing to be sent in I can now con­firm that Labour, con­trary to their promise to the Elec­toral Com­mis­sion has con­tin­ued to send out their ille­gal brochures.

These brochures were received today in his mail­box in West Auck­land. My tip­ster writes:

Saw your post on the blog ask­ing for copies of items received. Attached are scans of items I received in the past 3 days in my let­ter­box in west auckland.

The image with the scenic view I received 2 copies of in 2 days and the other 2 images of the food bas­kets com­par­isons I received today.

Labour has delib­er­ately lied to the media, to the Elec­toral Com­mis­sion and to the New Zealand pub­lic. They issued their press state­ment promis­ing to stop send­ing out ille­gal brochures on 9 July. The brochure was deliv­ered yes­ter­day 20 July, some 11 days later. This can­not be a mis­take, it has to be a delib­er­ate flout­ing of the rules.

I will now lay another com­plaint with the Elec­toral Com­mis­sion about Labour’s con­tin­ued break­ing of elec­toral law.

Oh dear. WhaleOil have been in grievance mode recently,. He has complained twice to the Speaker, and also to Chief Electoral Officer Robert Peden about alleged abuses of the law or parliamentary procedures by Labour MP's. Now it would seem that another complaint is about to land in Mr Peden's in-box.

It's one thing bleating about unfair play or illegal campaigning on the blogosphere or via social media sites. But we commend Cameron Slater for referring these allegations to the proper authorities so that they can be properly investigated, and so that sanctions can be imposed if it is found that the law has been broken.

We agree with Cameron Slater on another issue too. In this case, it's the Labour Party which is alleged to have been found with its hand in the public cookie-jar. But if other parties, National included indulge in similar rorts, we will encourage them being investigated by the relevant authority. No party or individual is above the law.And after all, it's OUR money that they are wasting!