The Civilian Party says the opportunity to laugh will be at least as important as anything else that will happen in this year’s election.
The satirical party has been the target of criticism after it was announced last week as one of 17 political parties to receive funding from the Electoral Commission for broadcasting election messages.
John Key in Parliament Photo: Diego Opatowski/RNZ
Mr Key says the funding isn’t worth it. “I think it’s the Electoral Commission that decides the broadcasting… divvying up of the pool of money and they’ve gone from 11 parties to 17. They've probably got prescribed rules and there's not much they can do about it," he said. "But in reality, the Civilian Party will be thinking the biggest joke’s on us, the taxpayer.”
The Electoral Commission does, in fact, have rules – laws, actually – it has to follow. TVNZ and Radio New Zealand make available (free) time for the eligible parties to broadcast election programmes. For TVNZ, that’s 60 minutes at the beginning of the official campaign on 22 or 23 August, and for RNZ, 60 minutes on the evening before the election.
The Commission allocates that time, and money from Parliament, to the parties based on how many people voted for the party in the preceding election and by-elections, the number of MPs a party has, and relationships with other parties.
It also looks at “the need to provide a fair opportunity for each registered political party to convey its policies to the public…” and other measures of support like opinion polls.
In its decision, the Commission says Parliament gave $2,855,000 (excluding GST) for the political parties’ broadcasting. Of that, The Civilian Party will receive $33,635, as will Truth, Freedom, Justice, The New Zealand Democratic Party for Social Credit, The Expatriate Party of New Zealand and the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party, among others. The National and Labour Parties receive the bulk of the broadcasting time, and $1,053,622 and $919,829 respectively.
The Civilian Party has yet to officially register with the Electoral Commission, and won’t receive any money if it doesn’t do that before August 14. (It needs 500 paid-up members.) In its submission to the Commission, it says it is at least as popular as Labour’s Trevor Mallard. The party says it has received more Facebook ‘likes’ than National and Labour combined, but that it is disadvantaged by a perception that it isn’t a serious party.
The Civilian Party believes that it will draw its support largely from an underrepresented demographic of younger New Zealanders, most of whom are less financially well-off than those with more established careers and lifestyles. As a result of this, donations to the Civilian Party have been substantially smaller than what other political parties may be able to expect...Of the $2.855 million (plus GST) allocated for this year’s general election, the Civilian Party believes it deserves at least $1,000,000 for advertising purposes, though, if there are mitigating circumstances, will settle for $500,000.
In an interview with The Wireless’ Elle Hunt, The Civilian Party’s leader Ben Uffindell said “the Bill and Ben Party was, I think, not really a very good use of anyone’s time, hashtag-shots-fired.”
I think jokes and laughter and being able to laugh at our predicaments are equally as important as anything else that goes on in this election
“People say ‘oh, it’s just a joke. It’s just a joke party. We shouldn’t be wasting taxpayers money or this and that on jokes’. And I think that’s just absolutely the most absurd thing you could possibly say, because I think jokes and laughter and being able to laugh at our predicaments are equally as important as anything else that goes on in this election.”
He says saying it is “just a joke” undermines the value of having satire in an election – where everyone takes themselves so seriously and is “playing a game anyway”.
In its decision, the Commissions notes that both National and Labour have both received less than in 2011. That’s because the funding from parliament hasn’t increased, but the number of parties has. But the smaller parties have received more, so they “have a fair opportunity to disseminate their respective messages….In addition, the Commission notes the difficulty that small parties have in gaining media attention.”
The full interview with Ben Uffindell will run later this month, as we profile some of the younger candidates in this year’s election.
