Having failed to defeat the Electoral Finance Bill at select committee, National has now resorted to scaremongering about it, with Deputy Leader Bill English warning that "ordinary people" will need to watch what they say to avoid falling foul of the law, and that they should seek legal advice "to make sure they don't break the law simply by voicing their opinion."
Bullshit.
As far as ordinary people are concerned, the EFB imposes no restrictions that do not already exist in law, and actually provides clarification in the area of blogging. It does not stop you from voicing your opinion on a political candidate or party. It does not stop you from distributing a small number of flyers or taking out an ad in a community newspaper, though you will have to disclose your name and address, just as you must under existing law. And it certainly does not stop you from e.g. starting a blog and venting your opinions on the internet. Quite the contrary, in fact, as personal, non-commercial blogs (such as this one) are specifically excluded from the definition of "electoral advertisement", and therefore are exempt even from disclosure.
In short, "ordinary people" have nothing to fear from the Electoral Finance Bill. The only people it affects are those who want to spend tens of thousands of dollars on parallel campaigns and helping parties to circumvent their spending limits. And those aren't "ordinary people" at all.
