Dirty donations sully political integrity
Never mind dancing with the stars, Marama Fox has been dining with the devil. That does not seem an unfair description of businessman Donghua Liu and his role in New Zealand politics, seeking to buy the souls of politicians – and always poised to claim his due.
Co-leader of the Ma¯ori Party when Liu donated $20,000, Fox was latest to succumb to his blandishments: She joined him and his family for dinner at their elegant $6.4 million three-storey colonial-style villa in Remuera, behind a volcanic basalt stone wall. ‘‘I specifically wanted to meet his wife as a family to see how they felt,’’ she says.
Well she might. He previously pleaded guilty to assaulting his partner and her mother, before the women withdrew their statements and he walked free. That is but one blemish on his speckled personal, professional and political record.
Liu has been generous with his donations to National, Labour and now the Ma¯ori Party. He has been quick, too, to call in the favours.
Former Labour leader David Cunliffe wrote a letter supporting Liu, after initial denials. MP Damien O’Connor intervened three times to help Liu in applying for residency.
National minister Maurice Williamson resigned after he was revealed to have phoned police to intervene in Liu’s prosecution on the domestic violence charges.
Some of Liu’s political donations have been publicly disclosed at the time – but others were revealed in subsequent media investigations, and Liu has admitted there are other undisclosed donations to MPs.
Amid the hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations, there is always a dinner – an opportunity for Liu to tell his grateful political beneficiaries his aspirations for New Zealand. He hosted Labour’s Rick Barker for dinner on a Yangtze River cruise. National’s Scott Simpson says he had a couple of dinner dates with Liu, before receiving a campaign donation. Williamson dined with Liu five or six times.
PM John Key and MP Jami-Lee Ross attended a private fundraising dinner at Liu’s home, after which the businessman contributed $25,000 to Ross’s campaign.
In 2014, Liu said: ‘‘As a private donor I donated to both Governments in good faith and without expectation.’’
Those donations paid off. New Zealand’s most tainted political donor was granted residency by Labour in 2004 and citizenship by National in 2010, in both cases against officials’ advice.
This grievous litany serves one (and only one) useful purpose: it reminds us we can never be too vigilant in protecting the integrity of our democracy.
The Sunday Star-Times has been campaigning for greater transparency in political donations; even small donations should be disclosed, we argue.
Because for NZ First to collect $546,253 in election campaign donations and not disclose the identity of a single donor is simply reprehensible. Or for National to rake in $4.58m and hide the sources of $3.5m of that.
All parties in Parliament are guilty to some degree. Even the Greens, who promised greater transparency during the campaign, failed to disclose any donors aside from their MPs and a couple of unions.
Green Party general secretary Gwen Shaw says the party wants greater transparency, but to protect donors’ privacy they’re not willing to disclose more than the law requires. ‘‘The Green Party has always stood for greater transparency around donations and these returns suggest there is room for further rule tightening,’’ she acknowledges.
Talk is cheap, when donors like Donghua Liu are willing to pay big bucks for secrecy. MPs who value the integrity of our political system must tighten the rules on secret donations. There can be no more deals with the devil.