These candidates had the biggest donations
National Party MPs were the key recipients of big money candidate donations during the 2023 election, while centre-right lobby groups were the biggest non-party spenders in the election campaign, figures released by the Electoral Commission reveal.
The commission this week released the returns of the individual candidates detailing total donations, the amount spent and the names of any donors who tipped in more than $1500 for the 2023 election period. Eight out of 10 of the biggest recipients of donations for the 2010 election were from the National Party – with NZ First’s Shane Jones in Northland and the Green Party’s Chlöe Swarbrick in Auckland Central rounding out the top 10.
Donations in election races are always closely scrutinised and broadly fall in two categories: candidates who raise money themselves or those who receive big donations from their party HQ. The practice within the National tends to direct most donors to HQ, which then targets specific races.
In the tightly contested race of Auckland Central, National MP Mahesh Muralidhar received $109,496.62 in donations – the second highest overall amount – very closely matched with Swarbrick, who recorded more than $95,000 and was fifth highest recipient on the list. The bulk of Muralidhar’s came from the National Party, while Swarbrick named nine individual donors over the threshold, including musician Neil Finn, who kicked $15,000 into her campaign and Les Mills gym founder Phillip Mills, who donated $5000.
The two candidates, however, spent significantly less money than they raised – about $30,000 and $31,600 respectively.
Hutt South candidate Chris Bishop was the fourth highest on the list, with $98,549 in donations, buoyed by a donation of more than $86,000 from the National Party. He reclaimed the electorate from Labour’s Ginny Andersen in a hotly contested race.
Jones, now minister for fisheries, resources, and regional development, received $95,524 in donations for his campaign in the Northland electorate, including $10,000 from the company owned by NZ’s richest man, Graeme Hart.
Political donations often follow candidates who donors believe are capable of winning, and so the highest Labour candidate on the overall list was Chris Hipkins, with more than $24,000 in donations from one man – Brian Monaghan, from Whitemans Valley.
Hipkins was the highest Labour candidate on the list coming in at number 24. Megan Woods in the Christchurch seat of Wigram was next highest for Labour, with more than $18,000, comprised mostly of donations from two charitable trusts – the Amalgamated Workers Union and the Wigram Labour electorate committee.
Te Pāti Māori was also the recipient of sizeable donations in the Māori seats.
The other big story was the amount spent by “registered promoters”. That is money spent by third parties in support of their agenda, and who register because they expect to spend over $15,000 during the regulated election period – rather than specific candidates.
Registered promoters pushing issues broadly associated with the political right were: Hobson’s Pledge, which spent more than $283,000, Groundswell NZ, which spent more than $141,000, the Taxpayers Union, which spent more than $371,000, and Vote for Better Ltd, (which critiqued government taxes and spending) spent more than $386,000.
On the political left The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions – which National attacked during the campaign for its attack ads on Christopher Luxon – spent a tick under $300,000.
The Better NZ Trust, which says it is politically agnostic and campaigns for the adoption of zero carbon technology and electric vehicle uptake, spent just over $266,000.