Photo: RNZ
Not a single business has made a substantial donation to the Labour Party since the start of 2021.
During the same time period, National received $1.1 million from businesses. ACT received $375,000 and the Green Party $100,000.
According to donation returns published by the Electoral Commission, Labour received no business donations over $15,000 during 2021 or 2022 and no donations over $20,000 in 2023.
The last time businesses donated to the Labour Party was 2020. Rorohara Farms, linked to Mainfrieght's Bruce Plested, donated $25,000 and property companies Tirohonga Holdings and GRL Holdings, both linked to Greg Loveridge, donated $25,000 each.
The donations to the companies linked to Greg Loveridge came under scrutiny when it was discovered Labour Minister Stuart Nash leaked a Cabinet decision to Loveridge and Troy Bowker, a property developer who had donated directly to Nash as a candidate in 2020. Nash was dismissed from his portfolios as a result.
Former Labour Party President Mike Williams said Labour's lack of business donations is not unexpected.
"Businesses prefer the National Party because Labour does things like increases the minimum wage, abolish the 90 day rule, brings in fair pay agreements."
Labour has declared $600,000 in donations made up of donations from individuals and unions for 2023. However, this figure only includes donations over $20,000. Williams expected smaller donations would be rolling in off the back of donation prompts in emails to supporters. These are not declared until after the election, so Labour's coffers may be in a healthier state than publicly available numbers suggest.
In the 2020 and 2017 election campaigns, these smaller, anonymous donations below $15,000 accounted for 45 to 49 percent of Labour's donation total and 78 to 88 percent of National's total respectively.
There was also a chance of large last-minute big donations from media-shy donors, Williams said. Details of donations over $20,000 must be supplied to the Electoral Commission's website within 10 days of receipt. The donors' names and the party they donated to are then published by the Commission on its website.
"Some of them make big donations just before the election so their name does not become public until after the election," Williams said.
Labour will also benefit from a dollar-for-dollar campaign where former Prime Minister Helen Clark is matching donations. The tally from that campaign is still to be declared.
More on the election campaign:
Labour vs National donations tally
Adding up all donations from 2021 to 2023, Labour's declared donation total of $1.2m is seven times smaller than National's total of $8.4m. National's $1.1m from businesses alone is almost as much as Labour has received from all sources.
Curia Market Research's David Farrar told RNZ Labour's leadership may have played a part in the lack of donations from businesses to the party.
"When Jacinda [Ardern] was leader I think there was probably greater antipathy from the business community towards Labour."
Farrar, whose company conducts polling for the National Party, thought Labour's change in leadership came too late to swell the bank balance.
"I think there is less antipathy towards Hipkins. If Hipkins had taken over a year earlier and hadn't inherited such a shambles they might be doing quite a bit better with the fundraising."
Should businesses be allowed to donate?
An Independent Electoral Review has recommended sweeping changes to rules around donations in an interim report including limiting who can donate.
Professor Andrew Geddis, a member of the panel working on the review, said people the panel heard from felt the "one person, one vote" ethos wasn't reflected in our donation system.
"That principle doesn't seem to flow through to how our parties and candidates get the resources they need to compete for elections. Our existing donation system allows for greater inequality at that point."
The interim report recommends limiting donations to voters, meaning organisations such as businesses and unions would be barred from donating.
Just over 20 percent of National's substantial donations from 2021 to 2023 came from businesses, totalling $1.1m of donations. During the same time period, unions donated $275,000 to the Labour Party, representing almost a third of its large donations.
While unions might represent people financially unable to make donations to political parties, Geddis said allowing unions to donate while blocking businesses was a minefield.
"The idea that if you're going to say some organisations and some entities are legitimate and can fund political parties and candidates but others aren't, you then get into difficult line drawing definitions of what's a legitimate organisation to fund [parties] and which isn't."
Geddis said unions and businesses could still contribute by becoming a third party promoter, or by becoming affiliate members of a party and paying a membership fee.
Geddis said the panel also heard concern about the influence large donors may have. "Either directly in terms of policy, or indirectly in terms of the kind of views and opinions that political parties are exposed to and take more seriously, because that cash is quite effective at buying access and attention."
Donations via people and businesses
Some donors donate personally as well as via a company. Available data for 2021 to 2023 shows dairy farmer turned property developer Christopher Reeve gave $125,250 to ACT personally, and $100,000 to National via Tawata Farms, which he is a sole director of.
John Bayley personally donated $50,000 to NZ First and the Bayley Corporation, of which he is a director, donated $164,000 to the National Party.
Questions have been raised about some donations. In 2023, property developer Christopher Meehan donated $50,000 in his own name to ACT, as well as a joint donation in his and his wife's name to National of $103,260. In May 2022 a company he is a director of, Speargrass Holdings, donated $52,894 to National.
Approximately five months later National's spokesperson for housing Chris Bishop issued a statement in support of Meehan's court case against Kāinga Ora. Bishop told Newsroom he was unaware of the existing donation when he made the statement, or of plans by Meehan to make further donations. ACT's deputy leader and housing spokesperson Brooke van Velden also spoke out in support of the developer.
Geddis said the final report from the Independent Electoral Review panel is due in November. The last report, completed in 2012, had no recommendations implemented.
"The government at the time and the Minister of Justice at the time, believed that there wasn't the political consensus needed to advance those recommendations."
