KEY POINTS:
There was an angry response yesterday to a realisation that new legislation reforming election finance laws falls short of what was initially foreshadowed by Labour.
Contrary to early recommendations on the bill by Justice Minister Mark Burton in a Cabinet paper, political parties are still able to accept unlimited anonymous donations from any person, trust or organisation.
Mr Burton had recommended that anonymous donations be restricted to below particular disclosure thresholds: $10,000 for political parties and $1000 for individual candidates.
However, under the bill, tabled on Monday, limits of anonymous donations will apply only to outside groups that want to campaign during election year and will be set at $500.
A spokesman for the Coalition for Open Government, Steven Price, said: "We are appalled the centrepiece of the bill has been dropped and the promise to make secret trusts and donations more transparent has been broken."
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said he believed the move to restrict anonymous donations for political parties was dropped after it became clear there would not be enough support for the state funding of political parties.
Co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said trusts and anonymous donors could still fund National and Labour next year "while more democratically based parties run sausage sizzles and cake stalls".
When she asked Mr Burton if individuals and corporations would still be able to make unlimited anonymous donations, he said that while these would be able to be made, placing spending restrictions on parties from January 1 of election year - rather than three months before an election - would curtail the ability of any party to be "grossly overfunded to the point it overwhelms proper debate".
He also said the matter would be referred to the independent review he had yet to set up.
