The most comprehensive discussion of the case today took place on National Radio’s The Panel this afternoon (audio here). I appeared on the show to discuss what I was doing and Stephen Franks was invited on to provide legal comment. Bomber Bradbury was invited on to say that constitutional law is boring. The relevant part starts about six minutes into this clip and goes for about ten or twelve minutes.
After posting the details of this case yesterday, one of the first emails back to me suggested that I go check my Statement of Claim for typos. Surely, the Bill of Rights 1688 wasn’t quite right…
Well, it is right and it’s an incredibly important piece of legislation. It’s one of the landmarks on the way from absolute rule to a civilised, constitutionally-limited government. Not PC has an excellent article explaining its history and relevance.
This case is completely separate from the previous investigation of whether the spending on the pledge cards should have been counted in the Labour Party’s election expenses. This is not about spending limits - I don’t believe in spending limits. This is about whose money was spent and whether spending public money on the pledge cards was illegal.
Inevitably though, there will be comparisons drawn between this case and the Electoral Act investigation. The best summary of the Electoral Act investigation I have seen was done by David Farrar. He has a good summary on Kiwiblog and an article detailing the case in the current edition of The Free Radical (issue 71, out on Monday).
Thanks to everyone who has expressed their support for this case. I’ll post up some of the comments I’ve received later.
If you want to contribute to fighting the case, you can click the PayPal button on the sidebar at the right hand side of the main page. Please be aware that the PayPal transactions are done in US dollars, otherwise you might give more than you intend!
If you’d rather not use PayPal or don’t have a credit card you can send cheques payable to “Libertarianz” to PO Box 6173, Wellesley St, Auckland 1141 (be sure to add a note saying that it’s a contribution to the Darnton vs Clark campaign) or deposit directly to bank account number 02-0278-0151989-066.
Again, many thanks to all those people who have already contributed and for your messages of support.
Dated 27th June 2006
The Applicant, by his solicitor, says:
A. The Parties
1. The Applicant is an elector, a tax payer and the leader of the Libertarianz Party, one of the political parties which contested the 2005 general election.
2. The First Respondents were the members of the Labour parliamentary party during the 2005 election campaign.
3. Proceedings are issued against the Attorney-General in respect of the Parliamentary Service, (“the Service”), a statutory body established pursuant to the Parliamentary Service Act 2000.
Embargoed until 6pm Thursday 29th June 2006.
Seeing Red – Angered Citizen Sues Clark Over Pledge Cards
Lower Hutt businessman and Libertarianz leader Bernard Darnton filed papers in the High Court this afternoon suing Helen Clark for misappropriating public funds to pay for her “pledge cards” at the last election.
The lawsuit claims that the use of the parliamentary leader’s fund to pay for the pledge card and brochure breached the Constitution Act 1986, the Public Finance Act 1989, and the Bill of Rights 1688. Darnton is calling for the High Court to make a declaration that this expenditure was illegal.
I’ve put up this blog to explain my lawsuit against Helen Clark over the “pledge cards” scandal. In the run up to the last election, the Labour Party produced “pledge cards” containing a series of election bribes. They paid for these cards using money from the parliamentary leaders fund, money that was appropriated for “parliamentary business”. “Parliamentary business” explicitly excludes “party political, promotional or electioneering material”.
While I firmly believe that everyone should be able to promote their own beliefs with their own money, the illegal use of public funds to pay for Labour’s election propaganda made me furious. I am determined to hold the wrong-doers accountable and to make sure that this abuse doesn’t happen again.