A site called followthemoney.nz is worth looking at. It is beta site that tracks since 2019, the visible money directed at political parties. It includes declared donations, the broadcasting allocations, some details on the donations over and under 15k and a interesting list of declared donors in 2026 up to the end of September.
National is fundraising and for $10,000 you can buy access to sit with the PM
Everyone on the left can agree that we must change the government. Elliot Crossan argues that if Labour wins in 2026 and refuses […]
In his final speech Joe Biden has warned the world about the dangers posed by Oligarchs supporting the right into democratic power. He is right.
Six months late and in the middle of the Holiday Period the Tax Payers Union has filed its election year accounts suggesting that it received $2,628,721 in donations that year. And there is no indication of who from.
This is going to take some explaining. The police have decided to take no action against National MP David MacLeod for failing to declare $178,394 in electoral donations. No this is not an Onion headline.
In breaking news New Plymouth National MP David MacLeod apparently *forgot* to declare $178,000 in declarations to the Electoral Commission.
The Electoral Commission has released the major promoters’ electoral returns. These show significant amounts of money being spent on getting Labour unelected but give no detail about how the campaigns were funded.
The 2023 candidate election returns have released and it has emerged that Bathurst Resources Ltd contributed $32,600 to Patrick Phelps, who ran a spoiler campaign against Damian O’Connor in West Coast Tasman.
A George Monbiot article in the Guardian made me wonder what effect the Atlas Network is having on New Zealand politics through the Taxpayer’s Union. Publicly available information suggests considerable funding is being made available and that the current Government’s priorities are precisely those that the Atlas Network would approve of.
Right wing twitter thought it was onto something big yesterday after there were revelations that Human Rights Commissioner Meng Foon had donated funds and cheap premises to Kiri Allan’s election campaign in 2020. But there was one rather significant problem with this expose, he had also donated to the National candidate in the same election.
The Electoral Commission has published that National raised $2.3 million dollars in large donations alone over the past 12 months.
The latest attempt to construct a sensible political donations regime will likely again prove to be full of holes. Going back to basics would be much better. The good news is that the basics were comprehensively assessed 36 years ago by the 1986 Royal Commission on Electoral Reform. It recommended state funding.
The Auckland mayoralty campaign promises to be a fascinating contest between a right winger promising to spend $1.5 million on the campaign and wants to turn sprinklers on the homeless and Efeso Collins who promises to run an inclusive respectful campaign.
The Electoral laws about donations are pretty clear. Receive a donation over $30,000 and you should tell the Electoral Commission about the report within the next ten working days. But the Maori Party and the National Party have both managed to recently breach this simple requirement.
The New York Times is reporting that the Trump Campaign sucked in a whole lot of republican voters by asking for urgent donations but then treating them as regular rather than one off donations unless donors discovered and clicked on a well hidden check box.
A well funded organisation has emerged from nowhere and is potentially having a significant effect on one of the referendum topics this year.
Jami-Lee Ross is threatening today to attempt to table details of National’s 2017 donations in Parliament.
Radio New Zealand has published details of Talley donations totalling $27,000 being made to the NZ First Foundation.
National has absolutely nothing to worry about the prosecution of four people for carving up a donation to the National Party.
National’s recent donations returns suggest that a large total of their donations are made in the under $15,000 category, the benefit of which is that the donor’s identity does not have to be disclosed. Update: The four accused have been named.
The SFO charges laid in the District Court reveal that it investigated not one but two dodgy $100,000 donations to National.
David Farrar has called for the suspension of Winston Peters from Cabinet for reasons which would also justify the suspension of Simon Bridges from the National Party.
Simon Bridges has stated that National wants to pay the undeclared $100,000 donation back but even though nearly two years have passed since it was made it still remains unrepaid.
Following the announcement by the Serious Fraud Office of charges relating to the donation of $100,000 to the National Party Simon Bridges claim of being exonerated appear to be optimistic.
Simon Bridges’ demand of an investigation into the New Zealand First Foundation appears to have backfired after it emerges that the NZ First Foundation was modelled on the National Party Foundation.
National’s attacks on NZ First’s Foundation are hypocritical in the extreme given that it also has a Foundation and has used this foundation to hide the identity of donors who have collectively potentially contributed huge amounts of money to the party.
Simon Bridges has accused NZ First of engaging in the most significant breach of electoral law in New Zealand’s history. But has not ruled out working with NZ First in the future. And has forgotten about National’s neat partition of a $100,000 donation to hide it from the authorities.
There has been recent media exposure on New Zealand First’s treatment of donations and the use of a trust to receive donations and avoid contribution disclosure requirements by making payments loans rather than gifts.
Jami Lee Ross has released details showing National avoided restrictions against overseas donations by a New Zealand incorporated company being used to make the donation.
The election year donation returns have been released and show a surge of donations for Labour but National still well ahead.
What’s with the academic panic epidemic about China? Two in our media in the same week, referencing each other with vague warnings about the Chinese bogey. It’s not quite Lionel Terry in Haining Street again; more likely in my view a case of singing to someones else’s geopolitical tune. No prizes for guessing whose.
Max Rasbrooke has done an analysis of donations to political parties, and raises the concern that donations buy influence. There is a solution to this problem.
Whether it’s about election donations or portfolios, some people do seem to think MPs should always get the benefit of the doubt.
The release of the candidate donation returns has shown us that the National Party are still rorting the system. However, there are issues for the NZ Labour Party as well. Four MP’s have taken money from sources that do not have the interests of the Labour party or, indeed, the majority of Kiwis at heart. Brassneck or bought and sold?
How slippery is John Key? Part one of transcript of Key’s press standup last Thursday. On accessing Labour’s website private details, OIAs to the SIS, Dirty Politics, Nicky Hager and Mr Slater. [Updated]
