Election spending cap increased
Political parties will be able to spend an extra $33,000 on their election campaigns this year.
Political parties will be able to spend an extra $33,000 on their election campaigns this year.
Election spending has been a thorny political issue in recent years, with third-party spending, undeclared donations and controversial changes to the electoral spending laws all causing headaches for those involved.
Parties will this year be able to spend up to $1,065,000 on their campaigns, plus $25,000 for each electorate they contest. That is an increase of $33,000 from the $1,032,000 set out in the Electoral Act 1993.
The change was made in a regulation last month that adjusted the spending cap to reflect an increase in the consumer price index.
The regulation comes into force next month.
This year's general election will be the first since new electoral spending laws were passed last year.
The law change fulfilled National's election promise to repeal the previous government's Electoral Finance Act and replace it with legislation worked out through cross-party consultation and with public input.
The law clarified the definition of election advertising, made it clear that parliamentary funding was not available for election advertising, and introduced greater transparency and stricter rules around authorising election advertisements.
Third party promoters -- organisations which are not political parties -- cannot spend more than $300,000 on election advertising, and those spending more than $100,000 will have to file expense returns.
Individuals who spend more than $12,000 on third party campaigning must register with the Electoral Commission, and their names will be made publicly available.
NZPA
Fri, 03 Jun 2011
Fri, 03 Jun 2011
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Election spending cap increased
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