Regulate lobbyists, make politics more transparent

Labour leader Chris Hipkins says he will make Parliament more transparent in a bid to restore people’s faith in the political system.

This will involve:

• Registering political lobbyists and making them follow a mandatory code of conduct;
• Introducing a stand-down period that stops ministers from resigning them immediately and signing up as private-sector political lobbyists;
• Strengthening the Official Information Act so there are real consequences for breaches;
• Limiting the use of urgency in Parliament to “emergencies, fixing urgent errors in the law, budgetary measures, and implementing the 100-day plan, where the policies in it have been clearly signposted before a general election”; and
• Requiring third-party campaigners in local and national elections to disclose their donations