Phillip Mills, founder of Les Mills International, has made a sizeable donation early in election year. Photo / Steven McNicholl
Phillip Mills, founder of Les Mills International, has made a sizeable donation early in election year. Photo / Steven McNicholl
The first major donation to a political party exceeding the public disclosure threshold in election year has been made to The Opportunity Party.
The Electoral Commission last week published a return for a $50,000 donation from Les Mills gym franchise managing director Phillip Mills on January 8 to TheOpportunity Party (Top), formerly The Opportunities Party.
In 2023, Mills also made $50,000 donations to both the Labour Party and the Green Party.
Normally, donations worth more than $6000 are disclosed through parties’ annual returns. In election year, any donation of more than $20,000 from a single donor must be disclosed within a matter of days.
In 2023, Top’s annual return showed it had received about $300,000 in donations. For reference, National topped the list that year with almost $10.4 million in donations.
Top’s 2023 donations only included two above $5000. It’s understood Mills’ donation is the largest the party has received since at least 2017.
Late last year, Auckland businesswoman Qiulae Wong was announced as the party’s leader. The 37-year-old will be the party’s fifth leader since it was founded by economist and philanthropist Gareth Morgan in 2016.
Former Labour minister Iain Lees-Galloway now works for Top. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Top general manager Iain Lees-Galloway, a former Labour minister who officially took on the general manager role this week, told the Herald the party had engaged people who knew Mills well to encourage him to consider supporting Top.
He understood Mills and Wong had met once previously.
Galloway said he was pleased the party had been supported by someone who sought economic reform and climate change action.
He would not speculate on why Mills had donated to Top in light of previous donations to Labour and the Greens.
Galloway emphasised the bulk of donations were small and regular, claiming the party had received an uptick after Wong’s leadership was announced.
Wong was expected to give a State of the Nation address in Auckland in the next month.
The Herald has sought comment from Mills regarding the donation.
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.
