The Electoral Finance Act is tied to General Elections or elections of candidates for electoral districts. It has nothing to say about elections that go on inside parties for positions such as Leader or President. So there is nothing in the act to stop unlimited funding or publicity for the causes of particular candidates for such positions. The Hive is non-partisan. So it would not really be appropriate for us to lead such a charge in favour of any particular candidate to lead any party. The title to this post is therefore for illustrative purposes only. But others who are partisan might like to give this issue some thought.
The Act defines a candidate advertisement as:
candidate means a constituency candidate, and a person who
becomes a candidate is deemed to be a candidate on and from
the beginning of the regulated period
candidate advertisement means any form of words or graphics,
or both, that can reasonably be regarded as encouraging or
persuading voters to do either or both of the following:
(a) to vote for a candidate in the candidate’s capacity as a
candidate for an electoral district (whether or not the
name of the candidate is stated):
(b) not to vote for another candidate
One should take care to ensure that a leadership contest or transition is actually underway (as is happening with Labour right now) or that it is likely (the Greens post election). We don't think that a multimillion dollar campaign to support the current leader of National or United Future would hold up in court should one be challenged.
