Juliet Chevalier-Watts, Frank Scrimgeour: The viability of some charities could rest on how they’re taxed....

The viability of some charities could rest on how they’re taxed – we should be cautious about changing the rules

There have long been calls for New Zealand’s charity-linked businesses to lose their tax exemption status. Under the current rules, companies such as Sanitarium, which is wholly owned by the Seventh-day Adventist church pay no income tax.

This could all change very soon.

Dr Barnett Bond: A letter to the University of Otago

Attention: Hilary Burrell
Attention: the Vice-chancellor

My name is Dr Barnett Bond - Alumni ID 13971

You wrote to me an undated letter which I received today, and you asked me to donate funds to the university for scholarships and other things.

Dr Hylton Le Grice: God save the New Zealand that we once knew.

1. Recently – Otago University – the oldest in NZ, and founded with pure Scottish history by new immigrants – my ‘Alma Mater’ for my 6 years undergraduate study in Medicine, and where 2 grandchildren are recent graduates and 2 are presently attending there – has recently – ‘wait for it’ -unbelievably announced a name change to that of the invented M?ori title of ‘Otakou Whakaihu’. Of course, Māori had a lot to do with the foundation of Otago University in 1869 – like ‘zilch’!!!

Peter Wilson: Week in Politics: Te Pāti Māori in spotlight as Luxon paints a picture of 'chaos'

Christopher Luxon rules out working with Te Pāti Māori and launches a "coalition of chaos" attack on Labour, Meka Whaitiri's controversial return to Parliament, National sets a donations record and ACT gains a high profile election candidate.

National's leader ruled out working with Te Pāti Māori after the election this week.

Thank goodness for that. No more "Poll shows Maori Party could be kingmaker" headlines, no more not quite ruling it out from Luxon, no more "leaving the door ajar" reports.

Garrick Tremain: NZ First donations

Here is Garrick Tremain's cartoon commentary on forgive and forget!

Bryce Edwards: Wealthy can buy access to power – and politicians don’t want this changed

The current New Zealand First Foundation trial in the High Court continues to show why reform is required when it comes to money in politics. The juicy details coming out each day show private wealth being funnelled into some peculiar schemes in an attempt to circumvent the Electoral Act.

Yet they’re not the only ones doing this. The major political parties are currently in full fundraising mode – seeking large donations from the wealthy. And they’re doing so in a way that often gets around disclosure laws or is allowed by the Cabinet Manual.

Both Labour and National are currently using their controversial “cash for access” schemes, in which a large financial contribution can secure you a meeting with the Prime Minister or the Leader of the Opposition.

Bryce Edwards: Wouldn’t it be great if political parties opened their books

An unusual thing happened on Friday, when the National Party proactively released public information about financial donations it had just received. The party declared that its former deputy leader Paula Bennett had just raised $1.8 million dollars in donations from a handful of wealthy supporters. And she had raised the money in just three weeks. One donation of $250,000 was from New Zealand’s wealthiest man, Graeme Hart.

The unusual part was that the party was releasing the details of the large donations publicly and early, instead of just leaving it to be silently added to the register at a later date on the Electoral Commission website, which would be picked up by the media later down the track.

Normally parties are keen to downplay large donations from the rich. With public suspicions that political parties are beholden to and even corrupted by large donations, there is a reluctance to allow this information to be publicised.

Michael Gousmett: "Voluntary" Donations - a National irony

There is a (N)ational irony in the recent debate about state-funded “free” education and “voluntary” donations.  The irony is that it was a National government which introduced the concept of a rebate, now known as a tax credit, for donations “to approved charitable, educational, and welfare institutions.”  That was back in 1962, just over 50 years ago, and the rationale for the rebate as stated by Keith Holyoake when he was on the election campaign in 1960 was “to encourage a greater degree of community self-help and initiative.”  

When debating this concession in Parliament in 1962, Holyoake stated that the rebate on donations of up to £25 a year would be “an incentive to our people to give.”