Electoral Finance Act sux kumara bigtime

Didn't I say this law was going to fly as well exclusive brethren without an aircraft?

Here is the proof.


"Barely a week into the year and the Electoral Finance Act has bared its teeth. The body charged with policing the act, the Electoral Commission, has contacted a 21-year-old about his website, named "dontvotelabour". He was told he had to put his name and address on the site.

Is this going to be the story of the year: constant vigilance of any form of public speech to ensure it complies with all 148 clauses of the act? How absurd that New Zealanders can no longer make a political statement in an election year without satisfying a welter of petty regulation.

When the Herald first raised its voice against this prospect, some said we overstated the threat to free speech. The financial restrictions applied only to expensive speech, they pointed out, and exempted several forms of expression including editorial comment such as this, and web postings by individuals with personal blogs.

But exemptions are never quite the same as freedom. Exemptions carry conditions that have to be satisfied. Andrew Moore, whose site has come to the commission's attention, would prefer not to put his home address on his site partly to protect his family. Why does he have to?"
Full article here

Exactly! It makes damn good sense not to put your real name and address on the internet free for every man and his cat, dog or rabbit to view. If only to keep down the amount of spam.

This law is so draconian that the above editorial from the New Zealand Herald also contains a warning to bloggers.

"Bloggers might have little difficulty fitting that definition but they will need to be aware that should their site acquire more than one author or, heaven forbid, make some money in some way from their political observations, the speech patrol could be down on them."

Well there you have it. Now like several other bloggers before me I will state the flipping obvious:

I assert that this website is a blog and published by me on a non-commercial basis, and any views expressed on it by me are my personal political views and under paragraph g of Section 52 of the Electoral Finance Act, is not an election advertisement.
I further assert that this website is a news media Internet site and that all posts on here are written by me, as the editor, solely for the purpose of informing, enlightening or entertaining readers, and hence also is not an election advertisement under paragraph d of Section 52 of the Electoral Finance Act.

(source kiwiblog)

In other words these are my and only my views and I don't make a bass razoo out of writing them down for others to read if they care to.
I would like to remind anyone who cares to take issue with this that unlike the Electoral Commission I don't have virtual claws. I have real claws.
Ppffffffffsssss