Labour courts anonymous business cash

By FRAN O'SULLIVAN and VERNON SMALL

Labour has invited prominent businessmen to swell the party's funds with anonymous donations to help it become the government in its own right with no dependence on small parties.

Fundraising letters sent by party president Mike Williams to carefully selected business people have come to light in a Weekend Herald inquiry into campaign funding.

The inquiry shows that party bagmen have already raised more than $3 million in political donations for the July 27 election, despite the problems caused by the snap election timing.

It also shows that Labour's campaign to demonise the Greens and isolate other minor parties such as New Zealand First has had little impact on their respective funding drives.

But right-of-centre Act has been caught short.

In hand-addressed letters, Mr Williams relays that many business leaders have told him there are three reasons they will make a donation this year to re-elect the Government:

* A general wish to support the democratic process.

* An acknowledgment that the Clark-led Labour Government has helped create a stable and healthy business environment.

* A pragmatic inclination to help Labour become the government in its own right this time with no dependence on small parties.

"We invite donations now to help fund an active and focused election campaign.

"Any donation to a political party under $10,000 is absolutely confidential.

"Only the donors that are over that amount are by law declared to the Electoral Commission, unless of course they are anonymous," the Williams letter says.

National Party president Michelle Boag last night criticised Labour's approach as "unrealistic, arrogant and anti-MMP".

"If they are anti-MMP they should go the whole hog and do what we're doing and say if you vote for us we'll give you a binding referendum.

"They're trying to have it both ways and that's not what the election is about."

Ms Boag will not disclose the level of corporate contributions to National's war chest.

"I'm not going to tell you what our target is but we've already met it."

The Weekend Herald inquiry shows that the Greens' funding has snowballed since the party's leaders struck a strong line on genetic modification.

Their $250,000 campaign budget has been doubled, corporate support has risen, and the party expects to pull in $500,000 by close to election day.

"The party is in a different ballgame to last time," said fundraiser Danna Glendining. "There are corporates who won't touch us with a barge pole and some we won't touch either."

Act president Catherine Judd, already facing an uphill battle to get the party back over the 5 per cent level which will guarantee it seats in the next Parliament, acknowledges that her ability to raise funds has been affected.

"We've had to alter our targets because we have had a much shorter time period than expected."

Ms Judd would not put a figure on Act's donations target. "It's a moving target. It's very difficult to budget for a campaign because you don't know what you particularly [need] with a snap election."

Jim Anderton's Progressive Coalition has already bagged $500,000 through business support for his Government initiatives.

But fundraiser Marty Braithwaite notes that, unlike other small parties, the coalition will not get an allocation of free television time to increase its exposure.

New Zealand First has bounced back from its 1999 election funding wipeout.

Campaign co-ordinator and NZ First MP Brian Donnelly expects his budget to swell to at least $250,000.

In the Alliance camp, president Matt McCarten expects to pull in $250,000 to $300,000 as the campaign comes to a head, but on present poll showings the party will disappear from Parliament on July 27.

Full news coverage:
nzherald.co.nz/election

Election links:
The parties, policies, voting information, and more

Ask a politician:
Send us a question, on any topic, addressed to any party leader. We'll choose the best questions to put to the leaders, and publish the answers in our election coverage.