Labour likely to kill Green attempt to cap donations

Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman will have an electoral bill debated today. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The Greens will make a last-ditch plea in Parliament today for Labour to get behind their bill to get big money out of politics by capping the amount of money people can donate to a political party.

New Zealand has no cap on the amount of money people can donate to a political party, a member's bill from Green MP Golriz Ghahraman seeks to change this by introducing a cap of $35,000 a year.

The bill is up for debate this morning and seeks to make a number of changes to electoral laws, such as allowing more prisoners to vote, and lowering the voting age to 16.

Unfortunately for Ghahraman the bill looks set to be voted down with Labour unlikely to back it.

"We'll be hopeful to the last minute," Ghahraman said.

"We're sitting in a place where there is no upper limit on political donations in New Zealand. We are very vulnerable to big money donations coming in and massively swaying our elections - especially knowing it doesn't take a lot of money," she said.

Ghahraman was concerned that without donation limits politicians would cease to be responsive to "everybody's interest" and become more beholden to people who had the means to donate money.

Labour has been lukewarm on the bill, noting that its own electoral law reforms have already implemented or will consider implementing many of the changes Ghahraman has proposed. It has restored some prisoner voting rights and banned overseas donations over $50.

The Government is currently reviewing electoral laws and will consider things like the voting age, overseas voting, the length of the Parliamentary term and recommendations made in the 2012 review of MMP.

That review recommended dropping the 5 per cent threshold to 4 per cent, abolishing the "one seat" threshold that allows parties to claim additional seats in Parliament from their party vote if they win an electorate seat.

Ghahraman's bill would also lower the threshold and change the "one seat" exemption.

Ghahraman said she was pleased the Government had adopted more policies from her bill than not.

She added the likely vote against the bill on Thursday would probably be an expression of angst at the pace of change proposed in her bill.