In 2004 the New Zealand Controller and Auditor-General published a report on Good Practice for Managing Public Communications by Local Authorities. The report addressed the broader issue of all council public communications and addressed the concern that publicly funded communications be used for legitimate purposes. The report stated that the guidance is not binding on councils but recommends that each council adopts a formal communications policy. The report acknowledged this is a contested area where communications should reflect the public interest and not support a partisan point of view, nor be used to promote the profile of individual councillors.
The report included a section on communications in a pre-election period which is concerned with ensuring existing members do not use council resources to promote their re-election prospects. The following principle is identified:
A local authority must not promote, nor be perceived to promote, the re-election prospects of a sitting member. Therefore, the use of Council resources for re-election purposes is unacceptable and possibly unlawful.
The guidance is quite detailed and has been voluntarily adopted by local government in New Zealand. Because of the voluntary process, each council can amend the principles and requirements to meet local needs and update it if local controversies lead to a change of focus.