The government continues to ignore the issues I am raising.

Instead, firstly the Greens, and then yesterday, the Labour Party, tried to suggest there may be some link between my membership of ACT and the Business Roundtable and the issues I am raising. Nothing could be further from the truth.  I initially ignored the Green Party’s Dr Russel Norman’s statement, however, following Michael Cullen’s comments yesterday I believe it is important to clarify the following facts:

1. My campaign is a personal campaign.  I am not acting on behalf of ACT or the Business Roundtable.  However, as I have previously disclosed, I have had support from the Sensible Sentencing Trust, Family First and some individual members of Grey Power’s national executive.
2. I have been an Associate Member of the Business Roundtable since July 2007 (five months).
3. I have received no money whatsoever from the Business Roundtable. It has not been involved in the campaign against the bill.
4. I have never donated any money to the Waitemata Trust or any trust associated with the National Party.
5. I have made it clear that there are aspects of the current government’s policy platform that I support strongly. For example, I have been a strong supporter of compulsory superannuation since I first joined the ACT party in 1994 and I support the principles underlying KiwiSaver.  This fact is well known to the Prime Minister as I wrote to her personally on the 14^th November to acknowledge a number of things that she and her government had done that I totally supported, including KiwiSaver.  I repeated these sentiments in my speech following the 5000 strong march in Auckland last Saturday.  Sadly, the ACT party no longer supports compulsory superannuation.
6. I joined the Business Roundtable because I wanted to see New Zealand become more prosperous and have the highest possible standards of education and health services.  Membership provides an environment in which I can debate these and other issues of public policy with business leaders.
7. Members of the Business Roundtable are not required to personally support or agree on all policy positions promoted by the organisation. While all support the broad mission to promote better public policy for New Zealand , individual members are free to hold their own views.
8. The great irony of Mr Cullen’s comments yesterday is that my membership of the Business Roundtable will give me opportunities to discuss my support of compulsory superannuation and his KiwiSaver, which I hope one day will become compulsory, with other business leaders.
9. While my own campaign on the Electoral Finance Bill has nothing whatsoever to do with Business Roundtable, I hope that by Labour and the Greens raising it in the way that they did, the New Zealand public will see that I support the Human Rights Commission submission so strongly that I am prepared to spend considerable time and financial resources trying to hold the government accountable over it.  I know I am not alone in the business community in this regard.
10. I last held a post within the ACT organisation in March 2006 over eighteen months ago, when I stood down as the party’s fundraiser.  Additional details of my political and community involvement and support of other Labour party policies can be found in my supplementary submission to the select committee on the Electoral Finance Bill dated 28 September on parliament’s website.  Alternatively, contact me and I can email you a copy.
11. Now that I have dealt with the issues raised by the Green and Labour parties against me personally over the last two days, I hope they, along with NZ First and UnitedFuture will now have the courage to tell all New Zealanders why they continue to ignore and defy their our own Human Rights Commission on the subject of the Electoral Finance Bill.

The marches represented a broad cross section of New Zealand society.  At the end of the rally I asked everyone who had not previously marched in their lives either prior to yesterday, or prior to the first march a fortnight earlier to raise their hands.  Easily three-quarters of those present indicated they had not previously marched.

Prior to yesterday I had organized marches in Auckland [Saturday 17 November], Wellington [Wednesday 21 November], and Christchurch [Wednesday 28 November].

I organised the second march for the following reasons:

1. Following the first Auckland march the Prime Minister dismissed the over 2000 people present as being members of the ACT and National parties and “not being indicative of a groundswell”.  The calls to talkback radio and letters to the editor told her how wrong she was.  I wanted to provide another opportunity for New Zealanders to demonstrate their opposition to the Electoral Finance Bill.
2. Since the last march the Bill has been reported back to Parliament and has passed its second reading.  Despite the protestations of Human Rights Commission the restrictions placed on free speech under the Bill will apply for a full election year, a potential eleven months in every three year electoral cycle.  No other democracy in the world has such severe restrictions.
3. The government continues to ignore the submissions of the Human Rights Commission in three principal areas.  These are:
   1. The Bill be withdrawn
   2. If the Bill is not to be withdrawn, it would be essential that any changes be subject to the widest possible public scrutiny.
   3. The regulatory period should be no more than three months and not the potential eleven months.

The timetable will be as follows:

From 2.00pm: Assemble outside Auckland Town Hall Queen Street

2.30pm: March off from the Town Hall to QEII Square /Britomart

3.00pm: Rally and speeches at QEII Square

I have organized this march for a number of reasons:

1. The first march organised in Auckland a fortnight ago was attended by over 2000 people.  This was the largest march in Auckland for some years. However, the Prime Minister dismissed it as the membership of the ACT and National parties and hardly indicative of a “groundswell”.  This was despite the fact that a large number of the marchers had no political affiliation and had never marched before.  This was confirmed by both TVOne and TV3 reporters.  The calls to talkback and letters to the editor confirmed that the Prime Minister was wrong.

2. Since the last march the Bill has been reported back to Parliament and has passed its second reading.  The restrictions placed on free speech under the Bill will apply for a full election year, up to eleven months in every three yearly electoral cycle.  No other democracy in the world has such severe restrictions on free speech.

3. The Chief Human Rights Commissioner, Rosslyn Noonan, a former trade unionist appointed to the position by the Labour government said  in her oral submission on 18 October to the Justice and Electoral Select Committee:

“The Commission’s preference is, and remains, that the proposed legislation, the Bill is withdrawn and redrafted to take into account the very substantial and indepth submissions of the over 600 submitters to the Select Committee.

If it is not to be withdrawn, and rewritten, the Commission’s view is that it is essential that any changes be subject to the widest possible public scrutiny to ensure the credibility and legitimacy of whatever electoral law reform emerges”.

The Commission also said that the present regulatory period of three months should be retained and not extended to a potential eleven months.  I attended the 18 October meeting in Wellington .

The Human Rights Commission has been ignored on all three counts.  The Bill has not been withdrawn. Secondly, the amended Bill has not been subject to the widest possible scrutiny by a second round of full public consultation as requested by the Human Rights Commission.  Thirdly, the up to eleven month restriction remains.

It seems incredulous that the Government is prepared to ignore it’s own Human Rights Commission on issues going to the heart of our democracy.  It is even more incredible that the Green Party, NZ First Party and UnitedFuture each claiming to have proud records on human rights are prepared to support this legislation.

This final march will give New Zealanders another chance to protest that the Human Rights Commission has been ignored.

Please find attached an advertisement that ran on Page A6 of Thursday’s New Zealand Herald.  A similar ad appeared today and will do so again tomorrow.

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The council have confirmed it is my democratic right to do so, and the march will leave from Aotea Square at 10.30am and proceeding to Britomart Place.

I and others will be protesting about the combined effect of the Electoral Finance Bill and the recently introduced Appropriation (Continuation of Interim Meaning of Funding for Parliamentary Purposes) Bill.

The combined effect of these two bills is to massively increase the amount of taxpayer money available to existing members of parliament and political parties to fund their re-election campaigns, while severely restricting the ability of private citizens to oppose them. This is an affront to democracy in New Zealand.

The Human Rights Commission has described the Electoral Finance Bill as “inherently flawed” and has called on the government to withdraw the bill and redraft it from scratch based on the over 600 public submissions.

To date, the government has failed to act on that recommendation.

The Commission has also called on the government to allow a further round of public submissions on whatever bill comes from the select committee process. To date, the government has given no indication it will do this.

We will be marching in support of the Human Rights Commission.

Those wishing to participate should assemble in Aotea Square from 10.00am with the march to leave at 10.30am.

The march will be widely advertised in the media next week.

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