Christopher Luxon's National Party received the most donations in 2023. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Christopher Luxon's National Party received the most donations in 2023. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
The Electoral Commission has issued warnings to several political parties, including National and Labour, about large donations being declared months after they should have been.
However, the indiscretions were deemed not worthy of referral to the police, the commission telling the Herald several factors were taken into account such as the size of the donation and the reason for the late declaration.
According to the commission’s rules, registered political parties must declare within 10 working days when they receive more than $20,000 from a single donor between January 1 of an election year and the day before the election concludes.
The commission’s list of donations above $20,000 showed National received $35,000 from HUD Studio, a software company behind a dating app that sought to facilitate commitment-free relationships.
National received the donation on October 11 but it wasn’t declared to the commission until more than a month later.
Labour was given a warning over its disclosure of the $20,368 the party had received across 30 donations from former Labour Minister Pete Hodgson during 2023.
Former Labour Minister Pete Hodgson made 30 donations to the Labour Party in 2023 ahead of the election. Photo / NZME
Hodgson had donated fortnightly and monthly to Labour, as well as two larger donations of $3000 and $5000 in April and August respectively.
Hodgson’s final donation was made on September 18 but the commission wasn’t made aware of it until May 10 this year.
Labour general secretary Rob Salmond admitted the donation was declared late due to an “administrative error”.
“We have explained the circumstances to the Electoral Commission and declared the donation as soon as we became aware of the issue. We regret the error.”
New Zealand First had two large donations that had also been declared late.
One was attributed to current MP Jenny Marcroft, who had given $32,000 through two separate donations.
The other was $25,000 from P.D. Harrison of Auckland’s Takapuna suburb.
Both were received by the party in August last year but weren’t declared until May 23.
NZ First secretary Holly Howard explained Marcroft had self-funded her campaigning in the Kaipara ki Mahurangi electorate, which wasn’t necessary to declare, but given Marcroft had largely sought the party vote, Howard said the party felt it important to declare as the funds were mainly used to benefit the party.
She copped the blame for the late Harrison donation declaration, saying it was “human error”.
New Zealand First party secretary Holly Howard at the party's annual conference in Hamilton last weekend. Photo / Mike Scott
Two donations to the Freedoms New Zealand party and one to the NewZeal party had also been declared late.
In a statement, Electoral Commission chief electoral officer Karl Le Quesne said in each of the instances, the commission sought information from the party secretaries before deciding whether to refer the matter to police.
“[H]aving considered all the circumstances, a decision was made to issue a warning and not to refer the matter to police,” he said.
“Factors taken into account include the reason for the failure, the amount involved, when it came to light, and the party’s processes for recording donations.”
Overall, National led in the value of donations received, totalling $10.4 million – more than double the amount declared by any other party and believed to be the most taken in one year.
Labour raised $4.8m, Act declared $4.3m, the Green Party $3.3m and NZ First $1.8m.
Te Pāti Māori disclosed $161,000 with party president John Tamihere the biggest donor, giving $50,000.
National’s $10.4m haul followed its tally of $5m in 2022 – the record for any year at the time – after securing several large donations from rich-listers and businesses.
The donation disclosure thresholds had been lowered since the 2020 election, so political parties had to disclose donors of more than $5000 (previously it was $15,000). They must also reveal how much they earned in total in donations of less than $5000.
Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.
