Labour plan to use Govt 'publicity' revealed

The Labour Party is planning to use the resources of government departments to campaign this year on its flagship policies, confidential strategy notes from the weekend Labour Congress in Wellington show.

In a private session on the 2008 strategy, run by president Mike Williams, delegates were advised to distribute pamphlets on KiwiSaver produced by Inland Revenue Department, and on Working For Families produced by Work and Income.

They were also advised to tell voters when handing out the pamphlets that National had voted against both measures, detailed notes from the session show. Distributing government department material explaining how new policies work is not unlawful.

But such publicity campaigns have never been directly tied to political campaigns before.

And, in the context of the new Electoral Finance Act, it could even be seen as inappropriate use of government publicity.

National deputy leader Bill English said the notes confirmed his own view.

‘‘It confirms Labour's strategy, which has been to use the Electoral Finance Act to shut the critics up and use the resources of government to broadcast their message with no competing views.''

The Act has made political parties extremely cautious about advertising because the definition of election advertising has been broadened to cover so much.

Any advertising needs an official authorisation.

IRD pamphlets giving information on KiwiSaver, and Work and Income pamphlets on Working for Families are not political in content.

But legal sources suggested last night that if such material was distributed by a party activist to support Labour, it could be argued that it met the definition of election advertising in the Act - essentially any form of words or graphics that can reasonably regarded as encouraging voters to support a particular candidate or party.

Under the Act, it is unlawful for government departments to produce material that could be considered election advertising.

State Services Commissioner Mark Prebble could not be contacted last night but a spokesman for the commission said the pamphlets set out government policy ‘‘and it is lawful for any group to distribute them''.

‘‘The material is printed to be distributed to New Zealanders to inform them about their rights so groups are welcome to distribute them.''

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