Noes have it on cash for MPs

Contact Energy's directors came under fire yesterday for the energy company's annual $90,000 donations to political parties.

On a show of hands, a majority of the about 150 shareholders at the group's annual meeting in Wellington supported calls for future donations to be approved by investors.

In its last financial year, Contact donated $90,000 to political parties based on the number of seats they had in in Parliament: Labour picked up $38,000 and the Maori Party $1000.

Shareholders' Association member Graeme Bulling, who put the motion, said he was perplexed why a company whose business was producing and selling energy wanted to get into politics.

"If the company has a desperate need to give away $100,000 why not give it to someone who needs it?" Bulling asked. "Child cancer, meningococcal victims, flood relief. Why not give them the $100,000? They need it, politicians don't. They're already taxpayer funded."

Another shareholder, the elderly bespectacled John Anderson, asked chairman Grant King not to vote the proxies held on behalf of Contact's 51 per cent owner, Australia's Origin Energy, and "let us in New Zealand decide".

Anderson was applauded for suggesting directors ought to pay donations out of their own fees if they were determined to give political parties money.

King, also managing director of Origin, said the board opposed Bulling's resolution "because the making of donations is an operational matter that properly rests with the board and management".

Bulling's resolution is expected to be defeated (confirmation of that is expected today).

The directors were probably happy when attention was temporarily diverted to the less controversial issue of car parks.

One shareholder, David Ash, suggested Contact ought to have made parking available in the hotel's adjacent carpark "as other companies do".

Chief executive Steve Barrett said he was happy for Contact to pay for those who had parked at the Duxton, winning murmurs of approval from the mostly elderly shareholders.

Despite a couple of tense moments, the directors managed to raise a smile at the end. Certainly former chairman Phil Pryke, now deputy chairman, was grinning throughout.

Bulling, the directors' most vocal critic yesterday, wrapped up by giving them a 90 per cent pass: "You've just got to tidy up those bits of disclosure," he said.