Nats’ $1m-plus donations haul far outdoes Labour

The National Party has already raked in more in donations this year than it did for all of last year, election returns reveal.

Donation returns for 2021 show Labour’s haul of $207,385 was dwarfed by National’s $1 million-plus.

National’s tally included $291,100 in donations of more than $15,000 — most of which were made before Christopher Luxon took over the leadership at the end of November.

It is unclear what immediate effect Luxon’s ascent had because the dates of smaller donations are not known, and all but one of the larger donations were while Judith Collins was leader.

However, National passed its 2021 total in the first four months of this year, courtesy of a $1.8m haul from a round-up of rich-listers in a fundraising drive by former MP Paula Bennett — including $250,000 each from Graeme Hart, Murray Bolton, and Nick Mowbray.

Act also got about $850,000 this year in a similar fundraising drive with some of the same donors. Last year, it declared it got $830,000.

National’s 2021 return included $15,000 from party president Peter Goodfellow on December 30 — the day before the returns cut off.

Other donors included National board member Stefan Sunde ($15,356) and previously disclosed donations from Barry Colman ($51,100) and Tawata Farms ($100,000).

Labour had three donors who gave more than $15,000 — the level at which donors must be publicly disclosed. They included Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ($18,645), who donates part of her salary each fortnight, as do other ministers and MPs.

They also included $16,000 from Paul Grimshaw, and $50,000 from Philip Mills, both regular donors to Labour. It got four donations of between $5000 and $15,000 — totalling $44,000 — and 314 smaller donations, totalling $78,740.

While it gets far fewer large gifts than National, in April this year regular donor Robert Smellie donated a further $100,000 to Labour.

NZ First declared donations of $107,298 — including $35,000 from Troy Bowker, which had already been disclosed. Loans to the party of almost $200,000 by leader Winston Peters were still on the books.

The Green Party got close to $404,000 last year — but about half of that came from its own MPs, who pay part of their salaries to the party. Co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson each put in about $38,000 while others put in around $20,000.

The Government has said it will review donation laws to ensure they are adequate after Serious Fraud Office probes and legal action over the way donations to political parties including NZ First, National and Labour were handled.

No party officials or current MPs have been charged in those cases.