The Electoral Commission is tasked with allocating to eligible parties the time made available by TVNZ and Radio New Zealand for opening addresses and closing addresses, and also the money made available by parliament for party TV and radio advertising during the election campaign.  Part 6 of the Broadcasting Act 1998 specifies the process of the broadcast allocation.  The process starts about eight months before the last possible election date and the final allocation is made after nomination day.

This management report sets out the details of the Broadcasting allocation process for the 2005 general election.  An explanation of the allocation process, the allocation decision, and the uses that can be made of the allocated money can be found under Election Broadcasting on this website.

When making the allocation the Electoral Commission has two additional members appointed.  For the 2005 general election these were David Caygill representing the government and John Isles representing opposition parties.  The Electoral Commission also ascertains from the government the money that is to be allocated ($3, 212, 000, GST inc.) and the time that TVNZ and RNZ will make available for opening addresses (72 minutes) and closing addresses (24 minutes).  The available funds were increased from $2,081,000 (GST inc.) to $3,212,000 (GST inc.) to reflect increases in media costs since 1990.

Initial allocation to parties

The Electoral Commission invited political parties that consider themselves eligible for an allocation to give notice of this by 9th February 2005.  Eligibility depends on giving this notice and then on being a registered political party when parliament is dissolved or expires.  The invitation was published in the New Zealand Gazette and in the main daily and Sunday newspapers.  A letter was also sent to every registered party and to all those who had requested information in the previous six months about registering a party.

Notice was received from 24 parties in total, of which 13 were registered and 11 intended to register.  Three of the unregistered parties did register before the dissolution of parliament in August.  The two republican parties that had originally applied merged and registered.  Two unregistered parties that replied to the invitation withdrew from the process before the oral submissions:  Cook Islands Māori Party of Aotearoa and Labour Coalition Party. The other parties that replied all failed to register by Writ Day (17 August) the last possible day for registration before the election.  Six registered parties did not reply to the invitation to give notice in February.

Table  1 – Parties included in the initial allocation

Table 2 - Registered parties that did not apply

Parties which had given the required notice were invited to make submissions on how the Electoral Commission should decide the allocations within the criteria outlined in the law.  A public hearing was held for parties which wished to speak in support of their written submissions, on 21st and 22nd March.  Copies of the written submission were made available to interested parties.

After hearing the submissions and reading written submissions, the Electoral Commission met on 5th and 14th of April to consider the allocation.  The Broadcasting Act specifies the criteria to be used in the allocation.  The Electoral Commission must have regard to a series of criteria which cover results of the last election as well as consideration of more recent measures of parties’ public support.  It also requires that eligible parties be provided with a fair opportunity to convey their policies to the public  (Broadcasting Act s75(2)).

This fairness criterion was the basis upon which the Electoral Commission decided to allocate a minimum to all eligible parties and also to cross-subsidise in terms of the other criteria from the allocation to the two largest parties to that to smaller parties.  Thus, the allocation is not an exact arithmetic reflection of share of votes, seats, membership or support in opinion polls.

Table 3 - Criteria distinguishing parties

Starting from the basis of a minimum, all parties were entitled to that minimum allocation and then the Electoral Commission considered which parties should be raised to a grouping which would receive a higher allocation.  This process of elevating parties into a higher group produced the divisions shown in Table 3.  The public support criterion was used to distinguish between parties in this process.  The table indicates which criteria were of particular significance in separating each category from the one below.  For example, the four parties in the second to bottom group were distinguished from those in the group below because each had recorded at least 0.5% in at least one opinion poll of the party vote in the last 12 months whereas none of the parties in the bottom group had reached that level in an opinion poll.  Likewise, ACT and the other three parties in that group are separated from Māori Party because each has more MPs, and had done better in opinion polls. In general, the Electoral Commission thought of parties as being in groups of similar levels of support and in any case placed a party in a group by itself only when there was a clear differentiation from the parties immediately below and above that party.

Whilst Labour and National between them are preferred by over 80% of respondents in opinion polls, the fairness criterion was used to impose some cross-subsidisation.  Consequently these two parties together receive $2 million (62%). The remaining (then) parliamentary parties were allocated $1 million (31%) and the non-parliamentary parties were to share the final $212 000 (7%). 

Table 4 – Initial allocation decision

In allocating time for opening addresses and closing addresses the groups of parties were collapsed into three broad bands.  All eligible parties were allocated some time for opening addresses, reflecting the fairness criterion.  However only parliamentary parties were allocated time for closing addresses as the shorter time made available by the broadcasters precluded a wider allocation.

The order of opening addresses was Labour Party, National Party, Green Party, New Zealand First, United Future, ACT, Progressive, Māori Party, Patriot Party, Christian Heritage, Democrats, Destiny NZ, National Front, Libertarianz, Alliance, 99 MP Party, The Republic of New Zealand, Beneficiaries Party, Republic Aotearoa New Zealand Party, New Zealand F.R.P.P.  This order was determined by following the groups used for time allocation and using random selection within each group, except that in line with past practice the main government party had the first opening address. Opening addresses were aired on TVNZ and RNZ on 19 and 20 August; Labour and National on 19 August and all of the rest on the following evening.

The order for closing addresses was the reverse within each group: National Party, Labour Party, ACT, United Future, New Zealand First, Green Party, Māori Party, Progressive. Closing addresses were aired on 16 September.

Each of the thirteen parties that was allocated one minute for an opening address also had access to a production package that was organised with TVNZ.  The package provided production that would otherwise cost over $7,000 for each party. This package was organised primarily to ensure both the accessibility of TV to these smaller parties, (in consideration of the ‘fairness of access’ criterion) and a basic standard of professional production.  For the parties that were offered the production package, acceptance or otherwise of the production package did not have any impact on the allocation of time and money to that party.  All of the eligible parties, except Destiny, used the production package.

Re-allocation

In specified circumstances the Electoral Commission may vary the allocations made without further consultation. Such circumstances include a party: not accepting an allocation, having its registration cancelled, making a significant change in its relationships with other parties, or failing to nominate a party list. 

At the time of the dissolution of parliament five parties which had received initial allocation had not registered and so were not eligible for allocation as they could not submit a party list.  The money that had been allocated to them was re-allocated to the remaining parties.  In making this re-allocation, the reasoning of the Electoral Commissioners was that in the original allocation the decision was that $2 million be allocated to the two largest parties.  As this decision would have been the same regardless of the number of other parties, there was not an argument to re-allocate money to Labour or National.  In the initial allocation the remainder of the money had then been distributed between the other parties and thus all were affected by the number of parties receiving allocation.  Therefore the money was distributed to all of these parties, pro-rata from the original decision.

Table 5 – Re-allocation of money (All values $ incl GST)

The parties that received an initial allocation but did not contest the party vote were:  Beneficiaries Party, National Front, Patriot Party, Republic Aotearoa New Zealand Party,  New Zealand Equal Values Party

Table 6 – Final allocation

The Electoral Commission may set conditions and the following were set. Only registered parties were permitted to enter into contractual commitments to use money, time and any production package that had been allocated to them in this decision.  This restriction ensured that the parties which had applied before they were registered did not use any of the allocation until they were fully eligible.

RNZ has also made conditions in relation to opening and closing addresses.  Conditions relate to statutory broadcasting requirements and production standards and addresses must start and finish with a statement of the name of the party.  Details of the conditions were supplied to the parties.

Payment of the allocation

Invoices are sent by the supplier or broadcaster to the party which then forwards them to the Electoral Commission with an authorisation statement.  The Electoral Commission pays the supplier or broadcaster directly.  Invoices can only be paid if received by the Electoral Commission within 70 working days of the end of the month in which the election occurred (by 12th December).

During the months of September to December 2005, the Electoral Commission received, checked and paid 73 invoices.  Nearly half of the allocation was paid out in September, a fifth on October and a third in November.  Only four parties had invoices still to pay in December.

Table 7 - Invoice payment of broadcast allocation by month (2005)

From the original allocation of $3, 212, 000 (GST inc.) a total of $22,927 was not (GST inc.) used and is due to be returned to Treasury.  Nearly half of this amount was a result of  The Republic of NZ Party not using any of its allocation.

Table 8 - Use of broadcast allocation by party

Broadcast spending in respect of both National and the Democrats was referred to the police for apparent contravention of the Broadcasting Act through spending more than they had been allocated.  In both cases media bookings were made on an assumption that the allocation excluded GST whereas the allocation did include GST.

In all communications with parties in relation to the allocation decision, and in the advice to parties on the Elections New Zealand website, the Electoral Commission notes that ‘the allocations of money the Electoral Commission makes to political parties include GST, whereas broadcasters' ratecards and quotations may not include GST.’

Commissioners

The Electoral Commission members for Broadcast Allocation process:

Hon Anthony Ellis, PresidentBelinda Clark, Secretary for JusticeJoe Williams, Chief Judge of the Māori Land CourtDr Helena Catt, Chief Executive|Hon David Caygill, representative of the GovernmentJohn Isles, representative of the Opposition parties

The initial and final allocation decisions were unanimous.

Timeline

Dr Helena Catt
Chief Executive
Electoral Commission
5 January 2006