Freedom of Speech

I have been looking into the EFA and how it is claimed to limit freedom of speech.

The short answer is that it doesn't limit free speech for anyone but a very tiny number of people and organisations who wish to spend a vast amount of money to tell people who to vote for.

What is an election advertisement? The law says:

Meaning of election advertisement

(1) In this Act, election advertisement—

(a) means any form of words or graphics, or both, that can reasonably be regarded as doing 1 or more of the following:

(i) encouraging or persuading voters to vote, or not to vote, for 1 or more specified parties or for 1 or more candidates or for any combination of such parties and candidates:

(ii) encouraging or persuading voters to vote, or not to vote, for a type of party or for a type of candidate that is described or indicated by reference to views, positions, or policies that are or are not held, taken, or pursued (whether or not the name of a party or the name of a candidate is stated); and
(b) includes—
(i) a candidate advertisement; and
(ii) a party advertisement.

I spoke to the Electoral Commission about this today. I was told by "Peter" that material I might wish to produce would not even be election advertisements (and therefore no limits at all) provided:

I included a "Promoter statement" stating my position on an issue or range of issues and identified myself - name and address. My position must be my position and not refer to any party or candidate's position. I can state my views and my position on any policy, but I can't explicitly ask you to support (or not) those views with your vote in any way shape or form. I'm just stating my views.

If you stopped right there, the EFA spending limits absolutely do not apply. No question. That allows a 12-lane highway of scope for freedom of speech on any issue.

I could then also include factual, fair, balanced information about all political parties and their positions, but I must take great care to avoid suggesting overtly that any person vote for one or more of them or NOT vote for one or more of them, or vote for any particular policy - or not. No ticks. No crosses. Nothing that looks like a symbol relating to voting. You would not include any party logos.

If you meet this standard, you have NO spending limits. Of course if you do NOT meet this standard, your ass will be grass. One person's "fair" can sometimes be another person's outrageous bias (usually when one or both are unable to be objective, blinded by their own elegant logic). But it should be do-able.

I can imagine a full page ad in newspapers everywhere in NZ that would meet this standard. My views would be communicated. I could leave it at that. Or I could include a fair, balanced representation of each party's position. I could see cutting and pasting their own words summarising their policy on any issue. What could be more fair than that? I wouldn't be suggesting anyone vote for any of them in my own statement. That would be 100% my view of the issue(s) at hand.

I was told that would probably be OK, but if that were too close to the wind for some, you could remove all doubt by stating your own views and leaving it at that. Don't even mention any party or candidate. Or you could list - fairly - the major points of variation on an issue without attributing them to any party or person. Again, your material isn't deemed to be an election advertisement provided your representation of any other person's view was scrupulously fair.

These seems to be a lot of scope here for any person to state their own views as freely and as expensively as they care to.

What I can't do is say "Vote for Party X because they are SO cool and the rest suck!". If I want to do that, I'm limited to $1000 in a single electorate or $12,000 if I cover more than one electorate (Two?). If I read the act correctly, you can be a member of a party and do as I suggest above, but you can't be a candidate or officer or involved in the administration of that party. That makes sense.

Blogs are specifically allowed to say whatever they want, provided they are the personal views of the blog owner.

If this is all tiresome and boring, you can give yourself a free pass from the whole EFA by starting your own newspaper, radio or TV station. Or all three.

Then you can trash talk the parties you don't like all day and night and not be accountable to anyone. It's the 'billionaire's loophole' in the EFA.