Party cash mainly from rich

Over half of major political donations come from wealthy individuals able to splash out $15,000 or more, new research shows.

Fifty-two per cent of donations over $1500 in 2011-2016 came in chunks of $15,000 or more. Donations under $1500 are not declared, but are not thought to make up a significant percentage of party funding.

Academic Max Rashbrooke put together the numbers and thought that the donations clearly bought some kind of influence.

‘‘If parties are reliant on very wealthy people for half of their donations, then they aren’t going to ignore them are they?

‘‘I think it must lead to influence for at least a certain class of people.’’

National is overwhelmingly the largest recipient of donations, raising $11.7 million over the six years from 2011 to 2016, almost three times Labour’s $3.9m.

While the general public often thought about donations in terms of trade unions and industry lobby groups, Rashbrooke said the vast majority of funding comes from individual donors.

Political scientist Bryce Edwards said international research showed large donations usually followed electoral success, rather than the other way around.

‘‘Large donors like to donate to parties that are doing well. That’s why Labour did so well in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s - they were competitors,’’ Edwards said.

But large donations did not always guarantee success, and paled in comparison to parliamentary funding for parties.

The Conservatives and Internet Mana spent far more than the Greens and Labour in the last election but failed to gain any seats.