donations Archive

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  Labour’s disrespect for open government

  
  
  
  After voters got a chance to know in time for the election Labour has finally declared it has taken $100,000 from a company called Resource Finance Ltd, which is registered at the same address as the infamous Vela Fishing Ltd. There are still no declarations from National or the other parties, including United Future, although perhaps [...] read more
  November 11, 2008 8:34 am - 7 Comments
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  Time to name the donors

  
  
  
  Brian Rudman in the Herald seems fairly impressed with the Greens’ Open Government policy.  He suggests that the Electoral Finance Act seems anecdotally to be having the effect of reducing the impact of big secret donor funded advertising during the campaign. On Monday, the Greens called for even tougher funding rules as part of its open [...] read more
  November 5, 2008 11:04 am - 9 Comments
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  Opening up cabinet minutes to the public

  
  
  
  Russel launched the Greens Open Government policy this morning down on the steps of parliament.  He had a big industrial spot light which was pointing every which way except at the beehive which it was metaphorically meant to be aimed at but thanks to a speaker’s ruling was not allowed to highlight.  Anyway the policy [...] read more
  November 3, 2008 5:00 pm - 42 Comments
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  Dunne’s fish problem

  
  
  
  After Lockwood Smith swallowed his dead fish and Winston Peters suffered the ongoing accusations about taking secret donations from the fishing industry we find out now that Peter Dunne might have his own piscine scandal to deal with via the infamous Vela family.  That certainly makes an improvement from his previous funding scandals.  I wonder [...] read more
  November 3, 2008 3:04 pm - 12 Comments
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  Peters donations scandal gets deeper

  
  
  
  The most compelling part of Phil Kitchin’s Dominion Post story about Winston Peters and the Velas is the three paragraphs at the very end: A box of documents sent to the newspaper this week shows that Vela interests made donations to NZ First as early as 1999. Mr Meurant suggested to Mr Vela that this [...] read more
  November 1, 2008 9:57 am - 133 Comments
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  You’re free to pay

  
  
  
  Brian Rudman seems to have found a Labour Party candidate who agrees with Green policy All power to Viv Goldsmith, Labour’s candidate in East Coast Bays, for speaking out against the fiction that school fees are “donations”… Ms Goldsmith, a teacher herself, says she mails off her request for fees to the minister each time she gets [...] read more
  October 31, 2008 1:33 pm - 13 Comments
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  Accountancy and accountability

  
  
  
  Did everyone enjoy the brief interlude in the election campaign where we got to talk about issues other than Winston Peters and his unusual accountancy systems?  (Maybe Jim Bolger was on to something when he made him treasurer, given his ability to run a party on no declared donations.) Interestingly Winston’s $80,000 donation from the Spencer [...] read more
  October 29, 2008 3:49 pm - 7 Comments
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  The donations scandal

  
  
  
  No I’m not talking about not Ian Wishart’s one. The fact the both major parties are currently so lacking in major donors seems a scandal. It’s now only three weeks to the election and yet, as of ten days ago, Labour hasn’t declared a single received donation over $20,000 this year to help fund its [...] read more
  October 18, 2008 11:05 pm - 19 Comments
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  Car Free Day’s antithesis – the Road Transport Forum

  
  
  
  If the public wonders why we seem to consistently get crazy things like this situation Russel was talking about on Thursday: A new report, released today, says there will be a 75 percent increase in freight over the next 25 years but predicts little – if any – difference in the way freight is moved [...] read more
  September 20, 2008 8:10 am - 18 Comments
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  More about donation returns

  
  
  
  Following on from my last post, the donation declaration rules are fairly simple and the main point in this context is that: That, when added to all the donation received from the same source in the preceding 12 months exceeds $20,000 a return of party donation exceeding $20,000 must be filed within 10 working days. That’s section [...] read more
  September 17, 2008 12:12 pm - 2 Comments