donations Archive

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  Labour’s disrespect for open government - by frog

  
  
  
  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 [...] read more
  November 11, 2008 8:34 am - 7 Comments
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  Time to name the donors - by frog

  
  
  
  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 [...] read more
  November 5, 2008 11:04 am - 9 Comments
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  Opening up cabinet minutes to the public - by frog

  
  
  
  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 - by frog

  
  
  
  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 - by frog

  
  
  
  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 - by frog

  
  
  
  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 [...] read more
  October 31, 2008 1:33 pm - 13 Comments
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  Accountancy and accountability - by frog

  
  
  
  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 [...] read more
  October 29, 2008 3:49 pm - 7 Comments
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  The donations scandal - by frog

  
  
  
  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 - by frog

  
  
  
  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 - by frog

  
  
  
  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. [...] read more
  September 17, 2008 12:12 pm - 2 Comments
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  Big donors - by frog

  
  
  
  At the very bottom of the Herald’s story on the CTU leaflet which might affect Labour’s election expense declaration is a small piece that says there have so far only been eight declared donations of more than $20,000 to the Electoral Commission. Five of them have been to the Green Party (totalling $162,000) two to [...] read more
  September 17, 2008 10:58 am - 23 Comments
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  Secret money - by frog

  
  
  
  “Well, that was an informative political investigation into the corrosive power of secret trusts and large private donations to politicians,” she said brightly. “Who’s next?” read more
  August 29, 2008 7:28 pm - 22 Comments
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  Transparency should be king - by frog

  
  
  
  Once again, our papers are filled with speculations and allegations about who gave money to whom and when, as well as to what end. The self-declared King of Transparency has lost his crown. This is precisely the reason that the EFA was needed. We can debate all day about the efficacy (or not) of that [...] read more
  July 27, 2008 2:05 pm - 30 Comments
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  Parliamentary questions about Peters - by frog

  
  
  
  I thought it was funny, after all the outrage that circulated around the various Winston Peters donation scandals over the weekend, that in the end it was the Greens asking the toughest questions in Parliament today. Tim Selwyn at Tumeke! Described the half hour of questions this afternoon thus: Winston’s crew were up and down [...] read more
  July 23, 2008 8:16 pm - 11 Comments
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  Funding democracy - by frog

  
  
  
  I like Matt McCarten’s suggestion this morning that businesses and wealthy donors that want to make political donations to ‘support democracy’ put that money towards encouraging people to enrol rather than making donations to political parties: Three months from election day, 300,000 New Zealanders who are mainly young and poor haven’t bothered to enrol. If [...] read more
  July 20, 2008 8:26 am - 11 Comments
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  I would’ve chosen the Cook Islands rather than Monaco - by frog

  
  
  
  I swallowed some pond water over the weekend and have been a bit off colour since then (which is tricky for a frog that is already green).  Meanwhile, the news has also been ugly.  Tony Veitch (I’d like to think this was as story about domestic abuse rather than celebrity, but I’m not sure it’s [...] read more
  July 15, 2008 11:35 am - 7 Comments