BIG NEWS

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

High Court allows Labour to break the Law


The National Party has failed to have the Electoral Commission refer a Labour party leaflet that breached the Electoral Finance Act to the police.

But the Police is investigating it anyway after a member of the public referred it to the police.

The High Court found that the Electoral Commission, not the High Court, had to determine a value judgment of what is "inconsequential" when referring an electoral matter to the police.

But it never does. Here's how things work: Parliament passes a law so that it can break the law on the basis of " inconsequentiality". The Electoral Commission does not want to decide what is inconsequential so refers everything to Crown Law for advice. Crown Law, in batting for the Government, errs on the side of caution every time - sometimes on the dubious grounds of "education".

This is not about law at all. This is about politics. As a result no one is the wiser on the Electoral Finance Act. It also gives the police an excuse not to prosecute if a member of the public refers further illegalities to the police while the Crown Law dictated Electoral Commission fails to do so.

So why even have the law in the first place?

There. Now I`ve said that, I may have to blog about this High Court decision as well. But I have to sit an exam so that`ll have to wait.

Labels:

Scoopit!

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Crown Law advice, released with the affidavit and mentioned in the judgment was to err on the side of referring offending to the police.

June 12, 2008 at 12:42 AM  

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