Gareth – it depends what law he's trying to break.

Right, and I just now noticed their lovely weasel wording on it: Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt plans to break the new election finance laws
Which I suppose he does, even if he's not going to...

And surely the Herald shouldn't be able to misreport exactly that.... While I think even they are going to back away from their support on this one, you'd think they'd have the editorial decency to point out such a base fact

But that's exactly how the Herald does its campaigning.…

It seems that at least one of the laws he intends to break is that which requires him to register before spending over $1000 publishing advertising related to an electorate.

Perhaps he should decide to put his name and business…

Danyl, there was one mitigating feature about Labour's use of money and it is this...They declared it.

Except in 2002, and 1999, when they did the same thing, and on at least one of those occasions put words like "paid for by supporters of the Labour Party" on it.

The…

Surely, if one wants to demonstrate these new "attacks on freedom of speech" it is the *new* bits that should be highlighted, not the old bits

And surely the Herald shouldn't be able to misreport exactly that:

Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt plans to break the new election finance laws this…

From then on public scrutiny came into play and in general it was rightly aghast. To imagine that Labour hasn't been punished and won't be punished at the next election is naive.

We…

He seems to be saying that by not getting authorisation from National for his "Vote National…

Freedom is the lack of restriction on our actions. Being better informed is something that's good, and it contributes to our capacity to participate in a democracy, but it's not freedom.

I see your point, but you are using a rather narrow and literal definition of "freedom". Every result…

a) most of the time its blogs which are posted under psudenoms that support the EFA.
b) when commenting on the EFA, those who support it on blogs tend to comment as anonymous
c) There appears to be more on…

After the last election there was an obvious need to revisit the current election laws – there was evident corruption and illegality on the part of both of our largest political parties

I'm not so sure that's really so accurate. National's breaches of the intent of the 1992 Electoral…

Freedom is the lack of restriction on our actions. Being better informed is something that's good, and it contributes to…

The last para in your post interested me:

These things are, by definition, restrictions on our freedoms. Laws are, by definition, restrictions on our freedoms. But not all restrictions on freedoms are sinister, and they have to be weighed up and judged with open eyes.

It is a curious…

absolute nonsense. the Herald and Listener publish letters from unverifiable sources on a daily basis. do you really think they have the staffing resources to check letters' provenance, or the inclination to do so when they provide pro-editorial copy?

Well, nanoplanet, I actually have a received a perfectly pleasant call…

newspapers not publishing unverifiable letters

absolute nonsense. the Herald and Listener publish letters from unverifiable sources on a daily basis. do you really think they have the staffing resources to check letters' provenance, or the inclination to do so when they provide pro-editorial copy?

insisting on identity disclosure for bloggers…

Geeks are all about building open social networks with microformats these days, surely?

Well, naturally. But they did it with style . . .

I had occasion to think about Issac Bickerstaff earlier in the week.

Writing that it suddenly struck me (heaven knows where I was going with it before) that if you forced everyone to be anonymous you might improve the quality of the discourse. No?

Public discourse, especially through pamphleteering in the 17th and 18th Centuries and through newspapers as the became more…

... and yet her company was still quoted once in the paper as saying they do check those pages!! (Hence her…

I don't ever post under my real name because of shit like this.

The message of that article is a bit sad. It's sort of saying that you can go out and live your own life and do stuff... just so long as you don't chronicle it online.

Because God knows…

The battle of ideas – or something like that.

Something I read recently in a book was to do with the rhetoric (old school sense) of politics. Mainly…

Yes, but identities of the officers of the political parties are public, and they are accountable for the actions of the parties..

But if you're seriously arguing that we need the EFB to eliminate 'covert influence' over public policy, who knows who is really pulling the policy levers inside political…

Sam Morgan: "We ask prospective employees if they have a MySpace page. If they say no, that shows they're not engaged enough in the web for our business....."

good grief, surely they want to actually hire SOME people with a degree of critical thinking capability. Having a Myspace page is…

The battle of ideas – or something like that.

I think it would be unbelievably stupid if that were the case – so unlikely, but you never know.

You'd think that the parties would send out a memo on this, stating that nobody is…

Great point, David. So on one end of the spectrum, you have paid political advertising, on the other, you have personal political communications via the internet, and the question is where you draw the line.

This about sums up the issue for me. I've not had the time to follow…

And so it bloody shouldn't. *If* it were true, it would be the Labour party circumventing their spending cap by sponsoring unattributed propaganda. If any evidence of this emerged, I'd expect a prosecution.

In keepleftnz's case, the writers were parliamentary staffers, but not acting in their capacity as parliamentary staffers.…

And so it bloody shouldn't. *If* it were true, it would be the Labour party circumventing their spending cap by…

When you referred to the not-so-distant past, I presumed that at the very least you weren't referring to a time before the invention of the printing press :-)

I'm not sure the authors of the Federalist Papers would agree with you on that point.

Please explain. 8-)

... my primary medium of "political expression" has been my membership in the New Zealand National Party.

Yes, but identities of the officers of the political parties are public, and they are accountable for the actions of the parties. Similarly, we don't need to know who hammered the nails on…

But it's not a new price. In the not-so-distant past, if you wanted to campaign, you have to literally stand up in front of the public and declare yourself.

I'm not sure the authors of the Federalist Papers would agree with you on that point.

Go on, declare yourself, too. Can't argue for transparency behind the veil of a pseudonym.

It has to be a physical address.

I stand corrected.

And just to be a little pedantic about your electoral roll analogy, you're quite right that everyone is required to register to vote. But not everyone's details are publicly available .

The principle of transparency only extends to identity, not…

The thing is Andrew Moore has consistantly tried to paint himself as a previously non-politically active youth.

Well I wasn't really taking issue with that statement – I wouldn't know one way or the other, but I'd thought I'd read somewhere of him explaining how he'd become politically active over…

And incidentially I support the rights of bloggers to stay anonymous.

And I didn't mean to give any impression to the contrary, but I think its fair comment to point out the fainted whiff of hypocrisy of people who denouncing so-called 'Hollow Men' from behind pseudonyms. Also, without wanting to…

He seeks to present himself in the media as a regular guy who is part of a groundswell of popular rebellion against the EFB.

Clearly, he is lying when he tries to paint…

It might not incorporate my nuanced view on the issue, but it doesn't seem that "out there".

From:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfm?c_id=1501154&objectid=10431152&pnum=0

"Andy Moore
Danna, from what you have said, your mother abused you – this is obviously not ok, – a smack applied to a child's hand or bottom by a loving parent however, is a…

And incidentially I support the rights of bloggers to stay anonymous. I just think the law is inconsistent and…

Would that complicate things any?

Cameron explained his role in a comment on kiwiblog.

The site is Andy's, being hosted by Cameron.

I wouldn't think the Standard is spending $12 000. But yes, the point at issue whether they need announce who they are.

If they're a 'blog they don't…

The funny thing about Mr Moore's website is that it's being (erm) heralded as his own work but the domain name is registered to Cameron Slater (aka Whale Oil) the National activist behind the KIll the Bill campaign:

Slater not only registed Moore's blog, [[http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2008/01/herald_on_effects_of_electoral_finance_act.html#comment-391535 | he's hosting it for…

Is putting names on campaign material and registration too high a price to pay for transparency?

The question of how the EFA restricts needs to be contextualised with what the EFA legitimises.

In the context of the EFA the answer is yes. Requiring names on campaign material and restrictions of…

"The Standard" is a personal blog, isn't it. Personal, non-commercial, and (in the dumbest piece of drafting ever – next thing you know they'll use the word W0Ot in legislation) in the form of a "blog".

They…

**query_datetime: 2008-01-08T14:29:52+13:00
domain_name: dontvotelabour.org.nz
query_status: 200 Active
domain_dateregistered: 2007-12-31T16:29:14+13:00
domain_datebilleduntil: 2008-12-31T16:29:14+13:00
domain_datelastmodified:…

The Standard (see link) has a story on Shadbolt and an ad someone has placed in the ODT

Could you point me towards The Standard's registration as a third party – I mean, its so easy even Farrar, who regurgitates Tory talking points as an evil running dog returns to…

David Farrar has done it.

Ah, that'll be why his name appears under a huge photo of someone who looks uncannily like...David Farrar...on Jervois Quay

As Private Eye would say, are David and Mao Tse-Tung related? :-)

The person who promotes the advertisement (the promoter, if you will) always has to have their residential address on it, however.

I would say, however that it's not that surprising having two different addresses – if I was signing up for something I'd probably put my PO…

It appears the "applicant" can supply a PO box, but the "financial agent" must supply a real street address...

Which in the case of the "Free Speech Coalition", looks a little bizzarre when they are the same…

PO Boxes are not allowed ( unless you live in it)

4 Interpretation

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
address means,—

(a) in relation to an individual, the full address of the place
where that person usually lives:

(b) in…

(And you can use a PO box, if you're concerned about personal safety.)

No.

It has to be a physical address. Under the Electoral Act it was allowed to be that of a business, under the EFA it must be of the place where you usually reside (i.e. a residential…