The controversial organiser of an anti-co-governance tour is being investigated after distributing more than 350,000 pamphlets around the country.
The Electoral Commission says the material could be considered election advertising, and may earn its author Julian Batchelor a hefty fine.
The pamphlets make a number of unfounded claims, including that a group of Māori elites are conspiring to take over the country and that co-governance is the “installation of apartheid” in New Zealand.
But it's the specific section of the pamphlet telling people how to vote that's caught the attention of the Electoral Commission.
"It specifically mentions one of the things you – the person reading the pamphlet – can do, is don't vote for parties which support co-governance. That, I think, probably makes it an election advertisement," said electoral law expert Graeme Edgeler.
In a letter obtained by 1News, the Electoral Commission warned Batchelor election adverts must have an official promoter statement, including a name and address.
To wilfully ignore these requirements is illegal.
It's still determining if the pamphlet is an election ad, but Batchelor isn't concerned.
"The infringement is extremely minor, and it would be hard to prove it in court," he said.
When asked if it was his intention to influence the election, he responded: "Totally."
The law also prohibits unregistered third-party promoters from spending more than $15,700 on promotion material in the three months leading up to the election.
Batchelor would not say how much he had spent on the material, saying it was confidential.
In 2005, Christian sect Exclusive Brethren came under similar scrutiny for distributing anti-Labour pamphlets without a promoter statement.
"That was one of the complexities with the Exclusive Brethren pamphlets all those years ago. [People asked] does this count towards National's spending?" Edgeler said.
"National didn't approve it, it doesn't have their promoter statement on it, and so it didn't count. For those sorts of reasons here, there's a spending limit for parties, there's a spending limit for candidates, and there's a spending limit for Mr Batchelor who is a third party and isn't contesting the election."
Batchelor’s comments are being closely watched by independent research group, The Disinformation Project.
Dr Sanjana Hattotuwa, a researcher with the Disinformation Project, says the information spread on Mr Batchelor’s various Stop Co-Governance websites and social channels, including the pamphlet, " is extremely worrying. It is what you would call dangerous speech. It incites hate, and it instigates harm offline".
"This is racist rhetoric. This is colonialism's long shadow.
"The Disinformation Project has looked at what he has said, what he has printed, and what he's published. The traffic to his websites are significant and have shown significant month on month increase over the course of 2023, so he is influential," Hattotuwa said.
He said people should not underestimate the level of engagement he is receiving.
"[On these websites and social channels] there is open talk, repeatedly, of civil war. There is open calls for weaponisation, and for taking up weapons. There is the sustained targeting of Māori," he said.
"The entire weight of academic research and for me, lived experience, in a region and a country which has seen this escalation of dangerous speech online is that it never stays online and that someone, somewhere, someday, somehow is going to take it very seriously upon themselves to act out what is being invited, instigated and invoked."
The Electoral Commission has told 1News it regularly receives inquiries about the compliance of election-related material, and looked into nearly 100 complaints in the lead-up to the 2020 election.
Batchelor denies he is racist, inciting hate or spreading misinformation.
If he's found to be in breach of the Electoral Act, he could face a fine of up to $40,000.
* This article was amended on September 1, 2023. Batchelor has now amended the online version of the pamphlet to include an official promoter statement.
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