NZ Politics Daily - 5 October (liberation)

It’s a pretty major allegation about the National Government – that it is accepting free election advertising on a radio station as a quid pro quo for a financial favour to the owners of the broadcaster. This is the escalated state of the saga/scandal over John Key’s so-called ‘election-free zone’ one-off broadcast on Radio Live last Friday. Official complaints have been lodged by the Labour Party with the Electoral Commission and Broadcasting Standards Authority – see: Goff's accusations over Key DJ segment rejected and BSA considers complaint against Key radio show. Useful contributions to the debate are also put forward in Simon Cunliffe’s Key's radio spot wasn't political - yeah right and John Pagani’s Radio Live keeps digging.

All of this shows that issues of political finance and electoral rules continue to dog New Zealand parliamentary politics, especially at election time. Ever since the 2005 general election, when two major political finance scandals broke – the Exclusive Brethren campaign that favoured National, and the Labour Party’s breach of the spending limits via use of taxpayer funded election pamphlets – all the parties have bickered and moaned about each others’ electoral activities and funding. The controversy of the Electoral Finance Act 2007 was the pinnacle of this struggle. Although issues of political finance and electoral law were meant to all be resolved by the National Government’s supposedly consensus-oriented replacement legislation, this was never going to happen. The replacement ‘solution’ was mostly as bad as the original, and the same problematic issues remain in terms of the attempt to define what an ‘election advertisement’ is, and how to properly regulate them. Of course none of the debates about political finance and electoral rules are likely to go away for the very reason that such allegations and counter-allegations are such useful electoral weapons. And in the current stoush, Labour seems to have the upper hand because regardless of the truth or otherwise of the corruption allegations, and regardless of whether Key’s appearance was an ‘election advertisement’, the whole affair now looks unwise.

The ‘game of politics’ has changed with the arrival at centre stage of ‘scandal politics’ and allegations about political finance and corruption. Hence it’s not surprising that there are plenty of other stories around today that relate to this broad topic: the Herald’s SFO's bubbly an error of judgment, Fran O’Sullivan’s More than a storm in a champagne flute, Stuff’s John Key: Authority to handle MPs' entitlements, Clio Francis’ Taito Phillip Field granted parole, and Claire Trevett’s Greens reject cash from energy firm. All of these stories relate to the fascination and concern with issues of political finance and corruption.

Other important items today include: Steven Price’s Staggering bunk from Collins over surveillance bill, Dene Mackenzie’s Key Nats' ace; Goff sidelined, Claire Trevett and Nick Tolerton’s MPs scramble to get photos with Mad Butcher, Bill Rosenberg’s Judge the Govt by things that matter, Danya Levy’s Treasury 'didn't have power to stop finance companies', Adam Bennett’s Cunliffe questions Govt 'failure' to monitor scheme, and Duncan Garner’s two items, Greens polling at record high - is Nat coalition likely? and Poll reveals how voters feel about Key's term.[Continue reading below for a full list of the highlights of NZ Politics Daily]

Below are the internet links to all the NZ politics material from the last 24 hours that are either informative, insightful, interesting or influential. This list and the links are taken from a fuller document, NZ Politics Daily, which is emailed out, Monday to Friday, to various researchers, academics, journalists, MPs and so forth. The document is purely for research purposes only, and if you would like to be on the subscription list, please email: [email protected]

John Key’s Radiolive show

Amelia Romanos (NZH): Goff's accusations over Key DJ segment rejected

Danya Levy (Stuff): BSA considers complaint against Key radio show

Lloyd Burr and James Murray (TV3): RadioLIVE deny Goff's suggestion of bias

Alex Walls (NBR): PM's hour not electioneering – Mediaworks

Simon Cunliffe (ODT): Key's radio spot wasn't political - yeah right

John Pagani: Radio Live keeps digging

Clare Curran (Red alert): Crossing the line