National Party raised $4m in election year

Political Editor, NZ Herald·NZ Herald·

6 May, 2015 04:40 AM3 mins to read

National's donors included some of the biggest names in NZ business. File photo / Mark Mitchell

The National Party raised $4 million overall for the election last year - four times as much as Labour.

The returns of donations political parties received in 2014 were released yesterday and show Labour raised $940,000 - less than the Green Party which raised $970,000.

The Internet Party disclosed the second highest amount with $3.5 million - all of which was from party founder Kim Dotcom. Of that, $660,000 was passed on to the joint Internet Mana venture with the Mana Party. The Internet Party had no other donations of more than $1500 in its return.

The Conservative Party was third, declaring $2.97 million most of which was from party leader Colin Craig and donors Laurence and Katrina Day.

National's donors were a round up of some of the big names in business, including Grant Baker ($19,220), the founder of vodka company 42 Below whose venture capitalism company has since invested in Ecoya and Moa beers. Others include property investor Adrian Burr, real estate bigwig Garth Barfoot ($20,000) and property developer Mark Wyborn ($30,000).

It declared a total of $1.1 million in donations of more than $15,000 and $1.6 million in donations between $5000 and $15,000. It also disclosed 52 anonymous donations worth a total of $13,000.

There is a limit of $1500 on individual anonymous donations.

Its total of $3.98 million was significantly higher than in 2011 when it disclosed $2.6 million.

Labour's failure to fundraise was blamed by some for its dire election result. Tim Barnett, the general secretary, was hopeful better times were ahead saying since the election there had been a "significant increase in high net worth individuals and corporates."

The bulk of Labour's large donations were from the trade unions, which gave $162,00 between them. The bulk of its donations ($408,000) were between $5,000 and $15,000.

Individual donors included wine company director Brian Corban who donated $19,500.

Mr Corban was also appointed to Labour's review team after its disastrous result.

Labour's return also included a $19,500 artwork from artist Karl Maughan which was auctioned as a fundraiser. Phillip Mills, of the Les Mills kingdom, also donated $50,000. Mr Mills had also donated $62,250 to the Green Party. The largest donors for each party have already been disclosed under rules requiring donations of more than $30,000 to be disclosed within 10 days.

The Maori Party, which used the Prime Minister for fundraising dinners, raised a total of $420,000 including $29,000 from Malcove Distributors, owned by Alan Pilbrow, and $21,250 from Cameron Sports Imports.

The Act Party raised $726,00 including from wealthy long standing backers Dame Jenny Gibbs and Alan Gibbs. However, teh government's third support partner - United Future - did not fare as well. It declared just one solitary donation of $1950.

The Green Party raised twice as much as it had in 2011. That included $452,000 in donations of more than $15,000 although the bulk of those were from its own MPs, who are required to give a portion of their salary to the party. The remainder of its total was from smaller donations and it declared no anonymous donations.