In May MacLeod said he thought he was filing a return for the 2023 year only, so left out 18 donations he had received when he became a candidate the previous year.
He also failed to disclose a $10,000 donation from 2023, which he said was a mistake he could not explain.
MacLeod said he “always fully intended for these donations to be made public” and had never tried to hide them, having written to all donors indicating amounts over $1500 would be disclosed.
The MP was immediately stood down from his roles on the environment and finance select committees by National leader and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
In May, Luxon said MacLeod’s path back to select committee roles was up to him.
“It’s about him demonstrating he’s a great member of the team - he is a valued member of our team - but he has work to do, and the way to do that is to show us he’s a good local MP, championing for his people in New Plymouth and doing everything we ask of him in Parliament.”
It was the National Party that discovered the error when it was consolidating its annual accounts, which led to MacLeod conducting a full audit of his 2022 and 2023 expenses and donations.
