It has been revealed that parliamentary state funding is paying for a National Party campaigning database. The National Party has paid at least $350,000 to an Australian company for a software system called Feedback, which gathers information on voters and their views. Part of the funding - $90,000 - has come from the 'Leaders Budget' in Parliament. John Key's chief of staff, Wayne Eagleson, says it's an appropriate use of taxpayers money because it helps MPs address constituents' concerns. Basically this means it allows the party to record information about hundreds of thousands of voters and then send niche marketing information to them to encourage them to vote for National - this is party political, not parliamentary.
Of course, details of such parliamentary spending on party political purposes don't usually come to light. After all the Parliamentary Service is effectively controlled by all the parliamentary parties (through their membership of the overseeing body the Parliamentary Services Commission) and therefore such payments are never made public. In fact the politicians has specifically made the Parliamentary Service exempt from the Official Information Act. In this case, the information has come from the Australian Electoral Commission which requires all companies to list any money received from political parties.
