State funds for parties on agenda

Press, 9 December 1988, Page 1

State funds for parties on agenda

By

OLIVER RIDDELL

in Wellington

State funding of political parties has been recommended to the Government by a Parliamentary committee that has been considering electoral reform for more than a year.

The proposal was recommended by the Labour members of the committee but strenuously opposed by the National members.

The committee has also recommended a combined referendum on proposals for electoral reform, to be put to the country in October or November next year. This referendum package would include a binding referendum on whether to have a threeyear or four-year term of Parliament.

It would also include an indicative referendum on whether to expand the size of Parliament from 95 to 120 members and whether to introduce a form of proportional representation. The form proposed — a supplementary member system — was the second of the preferred options put by the Royal Commission on Electoral Reform in 1986 and has been rejected as unsatis-

factory by the Electoral Reform Coalition. The Labour members of the committee overruled the National members on what to do about the Electoral Court’s decision to find Mr Reg Boorman, the Labour victor in the cliff-hanger Wairarapa result in last year’s General Election, guilty of a “corrupt practice.”

It was recommended that the slate be wiped for Mr Boorman, and. other election candidates who over-spent, and that retrospective legislation be passed validating him and cancelling penalties imposed on him.

But the committee did not recommend overturning the court decision,, so Mr Boorman’s dismissal from Parliament and his replacement by National’s Mr Wyatt Creech will stand.

Other recommendations in the committee’s report included: © Separate Maori seats should be retained and the number stay

at four. © All political parties that stood in the previous election should be represented on the Representation Committee, but minor parties have only speaking and not voting rights.

® Restraints on campaign spending should be lifted from $5OOO to $lO,OOO a candidate, including GST. 9 Public opinion polls should continue to be permitted and published during an election campaign.

©No second chamber in Parliament be set up, in spite of strong support from the National Party for one. © An Electoral Commission be set up as an independent body to co-ordinate the conduct of elections.

© Mechanisms be introduced to ensure fewer votes get ruled out on technical grounds.

Details, page 4