Labour would register lobbyists, limit urgency and scrap the ratepayer roll

A Labour-led government would make paid lobbyists sign on to a public register, stop ministers moving straight from Cabinet into lobbying jobs, and end the rule that lets property owners vote in more than one council area. Chris Hipkins made the promises on Thursday in a speech to the Law Association of New Zealand.

Parliament was dissolved the same day. The election is on 7 November, five weeks away. Everything in the package is a campaign commitment, not a decision, and would depend on Labour leading the next government. This account draws on reports from the NZ Herald, Newstalk ZB and Chris Lynch Media.

Lobbying is the biggest change. Hipkins said paid lobbyists would have to follow a mandatory code of conduct and appear on a public register showing who they are and who pays them. Former ministers would face a stand-down period before taking a paid lobbying job. He said this would "shut the revolving door between ministerial office and paid lobbying".

"Access to government should not depend on being able to afford someone with the right connections," Hipkins said. He said he had asked for work on lobbying rules while he was Prime Minister, and Labour would finish the job. The Herald and Newstalk ZB, which carried the same report, noted that the commitment echoes a "bottom line" the Opportunity Party announced recently.

On parliamentary procedure, Hipkins promised to cut back the use of urgency, which lets governments pass laws quickly and skip select committee scrutiny. "Labour will restrict urgency to genuine emergencies, fixing urgent errors in the law, Budgets and implementing a 100-day plan where policies have been clearly signposted before the election," he said. Any law passed under urgency would go back to a select committee within six months.

He didn't exempt his own party. "Governments of both stripes have used urgency too much, including Labour," he said.

The Herald reported that cross-party changes to Parliament's rules, including a new legislative scrutiny committee, would make limiting urgency easier.

Hipkins said the Official Information Act was written for a world of filing cabinets and paper. "We will codify proactive releases, including ministers' diaries, and create an effective penalties regime for breaches of the act," he said.

The electoral changes would reverse a coalition decision. The Herald reported that Labour would restore election-day enrolment, which the coalition Government abolished, and give 16- and 17-year-olds the vote in local elections. Third-party campaigners in local and national elections would have to disclose donations on the same terms as political parties.

The ratepayer roll would go. Hipkins said Labour would move to "one person, one vote" in local elections, "ending the rule that allows some people to vote in more than one council area". At present, people can vote in any local authority where they own property, though only once in each.

The people who lose out are owners of holiday homes and rental properties in council areas where they don't live. The Herald reported that those properties would still pay rates, but their owners would not necessarily get to vote for the councils that set them. Newstalk ZB reported that parties have resisted scrapping the roll on the grounds that property owners have a right to vote on the councils that charge them rates.

Labour MP Greg O'Connor lodged a member's bill to abolish the roll in 2024. It was never drawn, the Herald reported.

Local Government New Zealand has called for nationwide in-person local elections run by the Electoral Commission, in place of postal voting. None of the commitments reported from Thursday's speech addresses that proposal.

Hipkins also used the speech to repeat Labour's cost-of-living policies. They include capping public transport fares at $20 a week, freezing fuel tax for three years and funding three free GP visits a year for every New Zealander.