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.
On 17 August he wrote On 17 November 2007 a protest in Auckland against the Bill, organised by John Boscawen, drew over 2,000 protestors.
[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.
Parliament eventually passed the Electoral (Finance Reform and Advance Voting) Amendment Bill 116–5 ahead of the 2011 general election.