Mallard orders removal of online videos

WELLINGTON: Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard has ordered all political parties to remove online videos which feature MPs in the House which do not have the express consent of the MP being featured.

His ruling follows National using a video of Labour MP Deborah Russell in the House last week in an attack ad the party ran on social media.

Mallard yesterday afternoon ordered that all such videos be removed by 5pm today.

He told the House he received a letter from Labour MP Kieran McAnulty complaining about videos using official recordings from the House for political advertising without the authority of the member featured.

The letter claimed that the video showed ‘‘a false and misleading account of proceedings’’.

‘‘Mr McAnulty’s letter has highlighted the existence of a range of videos posted by different parties that use footage of members for political advertising.

‘‘I would be very surprised if those members had given permission, as the rules currently require.’’

Last week, National posted a video, featuring Russell, which showed her making a budget speech but trailing offtopic by talking about Greek mythology.

Before the video, text read: ‘‘Still not sure what Labour’s Wellbeing Budget means?’’

‘‘While there has been some discussion about what constitutes a ‘political advertisement’, it is clear to me that videos that support one party or to aim to reduce support for another party are the sorts of items covered by [Parliament’s rules]’’, Mr Mallard said.

‘‘That view is further reinforced by the description of the video as an ‘attack ad’ in the material [National Leader Simon] Bridges referred me to.’’

If an MP uses footage from the house in ads without the perdition of the MP it features, they will face contempt — a serious offence in Parliament.

Mr Mallard asked Mr Bridges and his office to ‘‘refrain from editing official video footage of MPs and posting it’’. — The New Zealand Herald