NZ First’s list of donors
The party pitches itself to grassroots Kiwis. But it’s bankrolled by some of the country’s wealthiest people. Matt Shand and Thomas Manch report.
Araft of multimillionaire rich listers are among the funders of Winston Peters’ NZ First party, donating large and undisclosed sums to a slush fund now being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office.
Stuff can reveal a longer list of donors to the NZ First Foundation up to April 2019 – which appears to operate as a political slush fund – based on foundation documents seen by
Stuff. It includes New Zealand’s richest man, Graeme Hart, and the billion-dollar Spencer family.
Business magnates, property developers, a chicken farmer, and thoroughbred horse breeders are among the wealthy known to have contributed heavily to the foundation, tallying up to more than $500,000 in donations.
There is no suggestion the donors have done anything wrong or acted illegally.
NZ First has traditionally pitched itself to voters as a party for grassroots Kiwis in regional New Zealand, a party keen to trim the excesses of neo-liberal capitalism.
Former NZ First MP Doug Woolerton, a trustee of the NZ First Foundation and a government lobbyist, told the
Politik website last year that the party has ‘‘always thought [its] constituency was the guy who owns the shop, the guy who fixes the tractors’’.
‘‘It’s not the farmers. It’s the people who service the farmers who do the grunt work day to day,’’ he said.
But the donations show NZ First retains the support of some of New Zealand’s business elite and wealthiest individuals.
The rich listers
Two companies owned by Hart, who is estimated to be worth $10 billion by NBR, donated two amounts of $14,995.
The donations were made by companies Walter & Wild and Church Bay Farm in March 2019, on the same day.
The Electoral Commission, which requires donations of more than $15,000 to be publicly declared, does not yet require donations from 2019 to be declared.
Hart declined to comment when contacted by Stuff.
A company owned by Hart’s son-in-law, Duncan Hawkesby, donated the same amount,
$14,995, four days after the billionaire’s donations.
Hawkesby and Hart’s daughter, Gretchen, have been reported to live in an Auckland mansion next door to Hart.
Hawkesby’s company, HawkMarine, is housed within the same building as Hart’s company Rank Group. Attempts to reach Hawkesby for comment were unsuccessful.
Three members of the Spencer family – Berridge, Olivia and Mertsi – donated separate amounts of $12,500, all on the same day in July 2017.
The Spencer family shares a
$1.1 billion fortune built on a pulp and paper company owned by patriarch John Spencer, who died in 2016, and is known for being extremely private.
Stuff has tried to contact the family through lawyers they have previously employed, but received no response.
Sistema founder and
Cambridge Stud owner Brendan Lindsay, estimated to be worth $620m, was listed as donating $30,000 to the foundation on May 11, 2017, through two $15,000 amounts from different entities he controls.
Another $15,000 donation under his wife Jo’s name was received on the same day.
Lindsay has told RNZ the donation was split for ‘‘internal payment processes from our end’’.
The multimillionaire declined to answer Stuff’s questions in recent weeks, but in an earlier written response to questions in November, he said he was unaware of the foundation when making the donations.
Lindsay said he had met
Peters on three occasions, once at the opening of a building and twice at fundraising gatherings, and would not describe himself as a friend of the deputy prime minister.
Six rich-listers donated to the foundation, including the Van Den Brink family, which owns Brink’s Chicken and is worth an estimated $110m.
Donations under the family and its companies came in three instalments on March 2, 2017, in two $14,000 amounts and one of
$8000.
Tony Van Den Brink, who is also head of the Auckland Polo Club, did not respond to attempts to reach him through his companies and polo club associates.
Travel industry head honcho John Bagnall, estimated to be worth $125m, first donated
$10,000, then $14,000, then $13,500 on consecutive days in July
2017.
Bagnall did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Similarly, fishing magnate Sir Peter Talley declined to comment on donations made to the foundation.
Talley, the owner of fishing and agriculture company Talley’s Group, estimated to be worth $390m, donated $7450 in May 2017, and then $15,000 and
$2500 on consecutive days in May 2019.
Talley’s Group also donated
$10,000 to the 2017 election campaign of NZ First MP Shane Jones, which was declared in Jones’ candidate electoral return.
The previously undisclosed donations from Talley’s to NZ First led Greenpeace to demand on Tuesday that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern launch a review into Government decisions related to the company.
Greenpeace executive director and former Greens coleader Russel Norman, responding to an RNZ story, said it appeared that NZ First MPs – namely Jones – might have been influencing fishing policy.
Ardern said Labour MP Stuart Nash was the fisheries minister, and NZ First MPs only had input in policy debates.
The biggest spender
A string of donations linked to New Zealand’s largest apartment building company, Conrad Properties, makes up the largest source of donations – $105,000 in total – received by the foundation.
On April 24, 2018, the company and three trusts associated with it donated
$12,500 each.
Two further donations, of
$15,000 and $10,000, came on consecutive days in July 2018. Another $15,000 was donated in August 2018, then another $15,000 in January 2019.
Conrad Properties appears to have maintained a close relationship with NZ First party figures. The company hired Woolerton to lobby the Government on the foreign home-buyers ban.
Woolerton declined to comment when contacted by Stuff in recent weeks.
Conrad Properties argued that, without being able to presell apartments to foreign investors, it could not raise the capital to build large apartment complexes.
The resulting law permitted developers of large apartment blocks to sell a portion of the apartments to overseas buyers, provided they did not live in the homes.
Conrad Properties director Ben Dearlove declined to comment when contacted by Stuff in recent weeks.
He previously told Stuff the company gave many donations to different causes, foundations and trusts, and he was unaware of where the money would have ended up.
‘‘I never really thought about it,’’ he said. ‘‘I assumed they end up where they are meant to go.’’
Racing interests dominate
Thoroughbred horse breeder Joan Egan was also untroubled about her donation to NZ First being funnelled through the foundation.
Egan, whose husband founded beef business Greenlea, donated $15,000 for the party’s election campaign in April 2017. She said she did so as Peters was the only MP prepared to confront problems with the racing industry.
She said she had never met Peters, and had no interaction with any NZ First MPs when donating the money.
‘‘[I had] no contact with the party beforehand and I haven’t heard from anybody since. I didn’t speak to anybody, I think it might have come in via an email from the person who was organising it,’’ Egan told Stuff.
‘‘And I spoke to some studmasters who are well known in the breeding industry and I understood that that’s what they were doing.’’
Egan said she would withhold her judgment on whether the party had acted improperly until the SFO completed its investigation.
‘‘I certainly hope not, but I simply don’t know. They’re very good at playing dirty tricks in Parliament.’’
She said she would consider donating again if the racing reforms proposed by Australian racing expert John Messara were committed to by the Government, but she had been disappointed by the promised reforms so far.
Racing figures feature prominently in the list of NZ First Foundation donations, and many were unwilling to comment.
Kent Baigent, a horse breeder from Karaka who donated
$15,000 to NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell’s campaign in 2017, declined to comment about his donations to the party.
He donated $10,000 in April
2017, and another $20,000 split into two donations from different entities he controls on September 19 and 21, 2017.
Waikato Stud owner Garry Chittick, who donated $5000, told Stuff in November that ‘‘I wish I could get it back’’.
Chittick said he was hounded by Woolerton for donations and he eventually agreed.
‘‘I believed it was going to help the party, not go into some foundation,’’ he said.
Despite gathering financial support from New Zealand’s lofty elite, NZ First maintains it is the party dedicated to meeting the needs of working-class Kiwis.
NZ First did not respond to a request for comment.