National Party Leader John Key says New Zealanders will be disappointed but not surprised that Labour has been caught breaking its own anti-democratic election laws.

"Labour spent two years lecturing other parties on electoral law, and now it has been caught breaking its own anti-democratic rules. This reeks of hypocrisy."

Mr Key is commenting on a decision by the Electoral Commission that Labour's taxpayer-funded booklet 'We Are Making a Difference' is an election advertisement and therefore should have been authorised by Labour's financial agent.

"How many warnings does Labour get? It's not as if this is the first time they've broken the law and been let off with a warning.

"Why should the one get-out-of-jail-free card go to the party that broke its own law?"

At the last election, Labour was found to have breached the spending cap after the illegal pledge card spending was declared an election expense.

"Labour Party officials told the Electoral Commission they would do the right thing and declare the spending before the election, but changed their minds after the election.

"Labour later passed a new law to make that illegal spending legal. I wouldn't put it past Helen Clark to attempt to do the same thing again."

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