WHO LET THE DOGS IN ?

Australia, the United States, Germany, most nations like us, have taxpayer funding of political parties because they see strong, stable political parties as fundamental to the functioning of the democratic process. The clearest system pays political parties a few cents for each vote after a general election. That’s the Australian model. It’s one we should adopt. In my first campaign, I ran one half page advertisement, while my opponent was able to run full page advertisements for many months. NZ was highly regulated, National controlled the levers of power and when the state has power, wealthy people pay careful attention to those whose hands are on the levers. When we deregulated the economy, we stripped the National Party of these levers. Politics also became deregulated and Labour became almost competitive in fundraising. In 1990, as Prime Minister, the cameraman who filmed my final campaign spot, 2 takes, 30 minutes, all we could afford, gave me a hug and sadly expressed good luck. He had spent several weeks filming my opponent’s final broadcast and my opponent had his own aircraft, our total campaign cost much less than the pledge card. On election night a journalist threw sandwiches, prepared the night before by my wife and mother-in-law, in the rubbish bin, complaining that National provide warm ham and cold champagne for the media.

Working with journalists during an election campaign is like sharing a banana with a monkey, he is just as likely to eat a bit, then throw his faeces at you, but that’s the deal.

For good reasons Labour has historically been suspicious of the Tory media. The first Labour Government broadcast Parliament and established a Minister of Publicity, a Ministry I abolished in the 1980’s. In the 1970’s, a young Labour Minister of Broadcasting, Roger Douglas, instructed by Norm Kirk, revoked a private TV licence, effectively nationalising what was to be a private NZ channel.

We have state funding by providing free television and radio time during a campaign – that levels the field somewhat. The ‘dogs’ were let in when we began to fund MP’s with research which slowly degenerated into more polling, and publicity than Parliamentary research.As funding for MP’s grew, the temptation to use these resources to get re-elected grew, nobody at the time ever thought these research funds would be used to pay for public hoardings or plastic pledge cards during an election campaign. Every time there’s an issue, there is taxpayer-funded publicity campaigns to prove the Government cares. This is not new, remember “Rub out the crim” in the 1980’s by Labour; National’s infamous spending in the early 1990’s to get re-elected? As Opposition Leader, I complained and said it should be vetted, pointed out as a Minister I had refused to spend public money in campaigns proving I was a good Minister, but the jaded media didn’t believe me because my party had done it. The question is not who started it but who will stop it? While I support state funding, it must also be done with a trade-off to make political parties more transparent and democratic. Labour shouldn’t force state funding through without asking the people’s permission during an election campaign. This is being advocated for the wrong reasons, to expose National Party funders and to nationalise the process. It should be part of wide-ranging, careful reform. Disclosure is everything, unions should have to consult members, businesses should consult shareholders, people have a right to spend their money as they see fit, but we have a right to know who’s funding who. We should also have disclosure of the interests of lobbyists, and commentators who flit with sleazy ease from the Parliamentary Press Gallery to Minister’s offices, and to consultancies– how can they be expected to judge events fairly when they are covering their future employers? Many have kissed the backsides and licked the boots of those they are paid to scrutinise for so long they have lost their sense of taste. Unfortunately the Government is now so embarrassing that even some gays are refusing to come ‘out’ for fear of being labelled ‘Labour’. Only the Maori Party has come out of this with any dignity.

But National is the beneficiary of Labour’s self-inflicted woes. Don Brash, whose “Aw shucks, I’m not a politician”, his James Stewart act, will no longer wash, he looks suspiciously like an Invercargill barber from the 1950’s, who you discover later sold condoms under the table. Still, I’m told, he inspired another thumb-sucking caucus meeting saying, “Not to worry, we will weather this storm of approval and get back to being hated well before election day.”