Seeing Red: The Press Release
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.
“Helen Clark is not above the law,” Darnton said. “This time she’s not going to get away with it.”
“The rules on Crown spending are very clear. All Crown spending must be authorised by Parliament. Each year Parliament must pass an Appropriations Act that details how much the Crown may spend and what it may spend it on. The money spent on the pledge cards was appropriated for the running of the leader’s office. This rules for this money explicitly exclude “party political, promotional or electioneering material”. It was not appropriated for election advertising and thus the spending was illegal.
“This government seems to have forgotten who’s in charge. In a democracy, the people are in charge. The people elect a Parliament and then parliamentarians form a government. The government is the servant of the people, not their master. The appropriations rules are one of our basic constitutional protections. By ignoring the appropriations rules, this government has shown that it doesn’t care about the will of Parliament or the will of the people and is quite happy to behave like a dictatorship.
“A declaration by the High Court that this spending was illegal will send a clear reminder to the Clark regime that they are not above the law and that they are still answerable to their master, the public.
“I’m absolutely committed to making sure that this government doesn’t get away with breaking the law. A government that follows the rule of law is essential to a free and open society. Something is rotten in the state of New Zealand, and my pledge is to stop the rot.”
ENDS
June 29th, 2006 at 5:47 pm
Why didnt you sue Heather Simpson as well?
June 30th, 2006 at 10:16 am
About time someone took here on! Well done.
wait for the nil response from ALL parliamentarians though.
I bet she lines up a sycophantic judge to delay all proceedings and she will claim subjudicy to avoid public comment on the matter, BITCH.
June 30th, 2006 at 10:36 am
Fantastic! Good work, hope you get through.. it’s high time someone slapped the politicians with a bit of reality!
June 30th, 2006 at 1:09 pm
Well done. Rome wasn’t built (or demolished) in a day. I bet the judiciary are trembling and wondering who is going to draw the short straw, hear the matter, rule for the defendents and then face public ridicule for being biased. I think there is another avenue that should not be overlooked. The middle aged hottie on the card bears little relationship to the dour faced and aging leader of the labour party. Given that the card is a form of advertising it must be vulnerable to an argument it is misleading and in breach of some consumer legislation.