Joe Simmons added this photo to the Don’t Vote Labour Facebook group. This act of civil disobedience (and others similar to it) is a strong indicator that there is a groundswell of New Zealanders becoming increasingly angry with the Labour Government. The passing of the Electoral Finance Act was the last straw for many people.

Liz Gordon at The Socialist Press writes on the start-up of the so-called “anything-but brigade”. I don’t know… she seems to be implying that I’m working together with People Power. That I’m just a front for some “Right-wing faction”. I like Whaleoil’s comment: “Like most sooky journo’s she is puss faced that we get more readership than them and that we can put together more commentary in a day than she can manage in a month of Sundays.” Click here for Scrubone’s response. Below are a couple of excerpts from her article…

…Campaigns like People Power and “Don’t Vote Labour” are not what they seem.

What they are is part of a strategy by various Right-wing factions to use laws that many people don’t like, in order to get votes for their side. That the people might like the next government less is never, of course, discussed…

“With slogans like “Labour is so 2005″ and “It’s not cool to vote Labour”, the spin doctors of the blogs are trying very hard to make it fashionable not to vote for Labour, or indeed the Greens or New Zealand First.

However, of the main people in the People Power and Don’t Vote Labour organisations, we know absolutely nothing.

Found this video on Youtube - was uploaded ten months ago, right around the time when the debate over the Anti-Smacking bill was at its height. Marches opposing the bill were held in Wellington and Christchurch. An average of fourteen polls strongly indicated that 83% of the free citizens of New Zealand did not want this invasive new piece of legislation. The Government went right ahead and passed the bill into law. When asked recently for a statement on the petition asking for a referendum to be held on the Anti-Smacking Law, Sue Bradford and Helen Clark have said that they don’t care what the outcome of the referendum is - a typical “we know better than you parents” attitude. And now what’s this we’re hearing? Police in schools. It’s a tragic downward spiral, disempowering parents leading to uncontrollable youth, leading to unstable adult life. This is the deconstruction of our society as we know it, hat tip to the Labour/Greens government.

I found this in today’s edition of the Christchurch Star…

Ahem, Mr. Northcote, where are you getting that from “If you had a website that looks like it is from a group, then that would not be covered under the law” - I never saw that when I read the relevant section of the Electoral Finance Act.

Oh, and whoops! I forgot to put my name and home address on that election advertisment…

for more cartoons, visit http://dontvotelabourcartoons.com

Stan Blanch has set up a website which is illegal under the draconian new Electoral Finance Act. I have three questions for the Electoral Commission.

1. Why is there a difference under the law between a blog (which is a website anyway), and a website. The term “blog” is new concept - what is the Government’s guidelines on “what is a blog and what isn’t a blog”? Further, the law states that “the kind of publication commonly referred to as a blog” is exempt from the new legislation. So we have two places of doubt - 1. the definition of a blog, and 2. the vagueness surrounding the exemption (”the kind of…” and “commonly referred to…”).

2. Why is it that Stan must place his name and home address on his so-called “election advertisement”, when all he wants to do is exercise his inherent right to freedom of thought and speech? Whether he walks through the town square holding blown up versions of his cartoons, or if he places them on a website, he should be able to do so without saying who he is or where he lives.

3. If Stan were to spend $12,001 in his campaign against the Government, it is unthinkable that he should have to first register with the Government before campaigning against them. To quote Mike from Auckland,

“As an ex-Zimbabwean, people often ask how we allowed Mugabe to have so much power. I used to tell them you only realise it after the fact and it’s too late. Now I point to how Helen and Co are trying to achieve the same means. Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.”

If we once begin to allow the Government to restrict our speaking out against them, New Zealand is lost.

Click here for more images

Press Release 11 February 2008
Don’t Vote Labour website back online

The Don’t Vote Labour website, www.dontvotelabour.org.nz has been relaunched as a blog.

On 6 January the Electoral Commission informed me that my website was in breach of the new Electoral Finance Act – the same law that the Human Rights Commission has labeled “a breach of human rights”. The new law specifies that if you make an election advertisement advocating for or against a political party, you must include your name and home address. And if you spend over $12,000 in your campaign, you must first register with the Electoral Commission for the right to have your say.

This new law is a blatant assault on democracy, and an insult to our soldiers who fought and died to defend our democratic country of New Zealand. The purpose of the law is only too obvious. It is to silence you and I, members of the public, from speaking out against the overbearing Labour/Greens government. And it places heavy restrictions on the opposition (National), while making it much easier for the current Government. In short, the Electoral Finance Act is Labour’s plan for a fourth term.

You and I are fed up with the Government – this new law is only one in a long list of anti-democratic and damaging legislations that are being pushed through Parliament, to further restrict our freedom. The Anti-Smacking law is an excellent example. 83% of the population opposed the bill at the time that the Government arrogantly passed it into law, turning thousands of loving parents into child-abusers overnight.

A massive thankyou to the thousands of good keen Kiwis who have stood behind me, and who I know will not back down in the very real fight to regain our freedoms.

- Andy Moore  (ph: 021 1140 751)