Dr Bryce Edwards: Te Pāti Māori’s ongoing financial accountability failures

New revelations this week show Te Pāti Māori still hasn’t produced an auditor’s report for its 2023 financial statements of political donations. The party told the Electoral Commission that a “delay with the auditing firm continued to be a problem” in explaining why its 2023 accounts remain unaudited. This was reported yesterday by BusinessDesk’s Denise McNabb – see: Still no sign of Te Pāti Māori audit report (paywalled)

Bryce Edwards: Political donations, Lobbying, Labour Party recovery, the media’s performance, and National’s questionable reforms

Have political donations and lobbying from the natural health sector led to the incoming government’s decision to repeal the Therapeutic Products Act? That’s the question asked today by RNZ’s Farah Hancock, who looks at the long-running relationship between the NZ First party and industry group, the Natural Health Alliance – see: What is it about Winston Peters and the natural health products industry?

The lobby group ran election advertisements, together with the mysterious S.B. Group, calling for a vote for NZ First. Hancock points out that the party then shot up in the polls, got into power, and included a promise to repeal the Therapeutic Products Act in the new Government’s 100-day plan.

Bryce Edwards: Court ruling shows big political donations can be given secretly

New Zealand’s rules to regulate money in politics can now officially be declared broken. Although, in theory, political parties are required to publicly declare any large donations, we now know that in practice they sometimes don’t, and the enforcement and legal consequences can be extremely weak.

We know this because this month the Court of Appeal overturned the convictions of the political donors who were on trial last year for channelling large undisclosed donations to the National and Labour parties.

Peter Wilson: The Week in Politics -The extent of the health staff shortage hits home

Health workforce data shows the extent of the problem that this government and the next are facing, National and ACT reject a report which says the country can't arrest its way out of the gang problem, and the Kiri Allan saga rumbles on as Labour's internal problems continue to plague the party.

The health workforce shortage is a decades-old problem but it wasn't until this week the extent of it was precisely known - more than 8000 nurses, doctors and other health professionals.

Cam Slater: Meng Foon Donated to Kiri Allan’s 2020 Election Campaign

His job is supposed to be politically neutral, but his donations prove otherwise

It has been revealed that another minister, this time Kiri Allan, has a donor problem. That donor is Meng Foon, who is also the Race Relations Commissioner. He has made substantial donations, both in kind by way of subsidised rent for Kiri Allan and in cash.

Peter Dunne: Political parties required to disclose all donations immediately

There will be relief in certain political circles at the acquittal of former MP, Jami-Lee Ross of corruption in the political donations case. Not because of any affection or regard for Ross, but more because the stench of corruption in our political system has been removed, at least for the time being.

However, the convictions of the three businessmen co-charged with Ross shows that the murky issue of donations to political parties is as controversial as ever. The rules regarding donations by businesses and wealthy donors to political parties are clearly in urgent need of tidying up to make them transparent, fair and fit for purpose.

Bryce Edwards: Fighting for cleaner and fairer elections

From this week the public can provide input into the Government’s review of electoral laws – a process which is supposed to make elections cleaner and fairer. Hopefully, public submissions and pressure applied to both the electoral review experts and the Government will force the consideration and implementation of progressive reforms.

The Independent Electoral Review now has a website, a consultation paper, and a way to provide feedback on what needs to change. To have your say, go to: https://electoralreview.govt.nz

Bryce Edwards: Time to take political donations law seriously

There is no corruption in New Zealand. At least that’s what authorities want the public to believe. For decades now our system of political finance regulation has been portrayed as highly rigorous, ensuring our politicians cannot be bought.

Unfortunately, that’s just not true. Although politicians and officials have claimed tight rules around transparency of large donations prevent the selling of policy by politicians, it’s really just resulted in a false sense of security.

Scholars of political finance such as myself have been unconvinced that the system works. As I’ve pointed out, often donation loopholes exist but are undiscovered by authorities. In this regard, we’ve ended up with a worst-case scenario in which the rules to prevent corruption are ineffective, yet the public is encouraged to have illusions in the rules working.

The New Zealand First Foundation trial has exposed a giant loophole

Mike Hosking: Politics is getting messier and messier

We end the week with a couple of unresolved issues.

First, the Green Party leadership. What a complete and utter bust that has been. If you were looking to make a dick of yourself, you could not have done it better than the Greens have this week.

They vote to open nominations for co-leader because James Shaw isn't what they like. And what happens next? A media that looks desperate to fill the space with speculation as to who might run.

And slowly but surely two names that could be, might be running, don’t.

Bryce Edwards: If the NZ First Foundation accused are not guilty, then who is?

It’s shocking that the accused in the NZ First Foundation trial were declared “not guilty” in the High Court today. But it’s not actually surprising.

There was always a strong chance that the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) was not going to get a conviction over the machinations used to keep large donations to the New Zealand First party secret. The revelation of this scandal in 2020, and the trial over the last month, may well have proven that the Electoral Act was breached, but it was far from certain that the accused were guilty of what the authorities were charging them with.

Bryce Edwards: Public submissions on political donation reform released

Is it ironic that the Government is reforming rules around secret political donations in a very secretive way? There has been overwhelming public demand for more openness about how politicians raise their money, but the Government and officials have been less than transparent and very restrictive over the whole submission process.

The public had a very limited opportunity to give feedback on the Government’s first proposals for political donation reform. The Ministry of Justice called for submissions over the Christmas New Year period, allowing an extremely short timeframe, with submissions closing on January 25. Critics might be forgiven for being cynical about how much public input the Government really wanted.

Dr Bryce Edwards: Tinkering with donation laws leaves money buying politics

There’s huge public concern about the potential for the wealthy to translate their economic power into political power. In particular, there’s a strong belief that governments in New Zealand tend to make laws to suit the interests of the rich. Whether it’s concern over Jacinda Ardern’s Government not implementing a capital gains tax, or the last National Government allowing casinos to have less regulation, there’s always a suspicion that donations from the wealthy to the political parties are influencing their decisions.

Recent survey evidence commissioned by the Victoria University of Wellington backs this up. Almost 70 per cent of the public don’t have trust in how the politicians raise their money, and a large proportion of New Zealanders want much tighter limits on political donations. For example, about two-thirds of people want donations above $10,000 to be made illegal. In fact, almost half of the public would go much further, outlawing all donations above $1000.

Point of Order: Kiri warms towards tougher party funding restrictions (perhaps encouraged by the Nats warning of the “chilling effect”)

The National Party’s strong objection to plans to overhaul New Zealand’s political donations regime, expressed in submissions on the Government’s proposed sweeping changes to electoral law, were reported in a Stuff report last week.

The changes would include lowering the threshold for political parties to disclose donors from $15,000 to $1500 and require political parties to make public their annual financial statements 

This would have a “chilling effect” on democracy, the Nats contended.

The Ardern government isn’t too fussed about protecting the country’s democratic electoral arrangements nowadays, of course, as has become glaringly obvious over the past year or so (see here, here and here for evidence)

Stephen Franks: Labour-Liu legal loophole?

Since the link between Donghua Liu and David Cunliffe surfaced early this week there has been widespread speculation that Labour breached the law in failing to declare two campaign donations made by Mr Liu in 2007.

Though Labour maintains it has no records, the Herald has reported that in 2007 Mr Liu contributed $15,000 for a book signed by Helen Clark, and an unknown amount of money for a bottle of wine.