Silencing political speech

I see the media and bloggers have finally got hold of the news that National is appealing the Electoral Commission's decision to register the EPMU. The Herald states that the EPMU was to be registered yesterday.

Good to see the Standard blog has wide coverage of the decision.

No Right Turn sees this whole thing as an indication that those with money and lawyers can effectively silence political speech, no matter what the law says. He says that is unacceptable in a democracy and I agree. But he gives no reason why he pretty much supported a law that let this happen.

The Electoral Finance Act is the real source of democratic unacceptablility, and its good that National is to repeal the Act.It's pretty hard to see how the EFA can be interpreted through the Bill of Rights Act when nobody seems to know how it actually complies with the BORA. I hope the case drags on and on to teach Labour and its cronies a lesson.

All four parties which supported the Electoral Finance Act have been found to have breached it, and three of them are being investigated by police.