The Fifth Labour Government introduced the Electoral Finance Bill partly in response to the 2005 New Zealand election funding controversy, in particular to "third-party" campaigns.
The proponents of the bill generally held that such a law was required to prevent wealthy private parties from "buying elections" anonymously via advertising campaigns or other financially costly lobbying, while opponents considered it a serious restriction of civil liberties, and further regarded spending private money on political campaigning as a democratic right.
Principally and most controversially it regulated "third party" election campaigns[4] The Act made it illegal for anyone to spend more than NZ$12,000 criticising or supporting a political party or taking a position on any political matter, or more than NZ$1,000 criticising or supporting an individual member of parliament, without first registering with a state agency, the Electoral Commission.
[2] On 6 October 2007 the Free Speech Coalition was formed by prominent right-wing bloggers David Farrar and Cameron Slater, and Bernard Darnton, leader of the Libertarianz Party, to oppose the Bill.
[citation needed] Criticism has also been made over the process that led to the Bill's introduction, which involved discussions only with the Labour Government's supporting parties and not the Opposition.
[4][7] Political commentator Chris Trotter had harsh criticism of the detractors of the Act in several opinion pieces in The Dominion Post.
[11] The National Business Review described Crown Law's opinion as "...one of the worst, most politically expedient calls on New Zealand human rights legislation in memory.
[14] Investigative journalist Nicky Hager, author of The Hollow Men, submitted in favour of the need for changes to New Zealand electoral law.
[17] Annette King, who became Minister of Justice following a Cabinet reshuffle on 31 October 2007, [18] announced a number of changes to the Bill.
Parliament eventually passed the Electoral (Finance Reform and Advance Voting) Amendment Bill 116–5 ahead of the 2011 general election.