Ele Ludemann: Say no to taxpayer funding of political parties

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has sensibly ruled out several recommendations from the Independent Electoral Review’s final report :

“A number of recommendations can be ruled out immediately, such as lowering the voting age to 16, allowing all prisoners to vote and stand for Parliament, freezing the ratio of electorate to list seats, which would lead to extra MPs as the population increases, and repealing the offence of ‘treating’ voters with refreshments and entertainment.”

The final report is here and includes several other recommendations which ought to be ruled out too.

Among those is state funding of political parties and I support the Taxpayers’ Union which opposes that:

Responding to today’s release of the Final Report of the Independent Electoral Review, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said:

“The recommendation from the Review to increase funding for political parties is morally wrong, and erodes grassroots democracy.

“No taxpayer should be forced to fork out money to fund parties they find morally reprehensible. People pay taxes so that it can be spent on quality public services, not party propaganda.

“If parties can rely on guaranteed money from the taxpayer, they become less reliant on membership dues and fundraisers. This reduces the incentive for parties to be responsive to their members’ values and will lead to less accountability.

“Incumbent political parties already receive substantial taxpayer funding through the broadcasting allocation and the ability to use Parliamentary Service funding for political advertising that is not even subject to our Official Information laws. Rather than shifting the money around and adding even more taxpayer funding into the mix, all taxpayer funding for political parties should be scrapped.

“We call on all political parties to publicly reject the recommendation for further taxpayer funding of political parties and urge them to go one step further by removing the broadcasting allocation and the ability to use taxpayer funds for blatantly political advertisements.”

MMP has given a lot more power to parties.

If they can’t persuade their supporters to finance them they have no right to public funding and if they can persuade their supporters to fund them they have no need for public funding.

The government is looking at ways to save money. Ditching the broadcasting allowance wouldn’t save a lot in terms of overall spending but it would send a signal that every cent is being spent wisely. Ruling out any additional funding of political parties would reinforce that.

It is the democratically, economically and ethically sensible thing to do.

Ele Ludemann is a North Otago farmer and journalist, who blogs HERE - where this article was sourced.