Story: Elections and campaigns

Funding caused a series of scandals during the 2005 election. The Labour government was found to have used parliamentary funding for party political purposes, the National Party spent more than it should have on television advertising and, unusually for New Zealand, the Exclusive Brethren, a Christian sect, spent $1.2 million on a campaign to help its preferred party. One element of the Exclusive Brethren campaign was a leaflet encouraging a vote for the National Party, which was widely distributed. The leaflet lacked the legally required identification of the party which authorised it. A group of seven businessmen, all members of the Exclusive Brethren, announced that they were responsible. The Bible shown here is lying on a table at a press conference the group called to discuss the furore.