National raises ‘unprecedented’ $2.3m war chest from richlist donors before election year

The National Party may start election year with a $2.3 million war chest raised from 24 big donors in 2022, while Labour has declared just $150,000 in large donations, according to Electoral Commission records.

The disparity has seen National raise more money from large donors in one year than Labour has raised in nearly a decade.

Most of National’s funds are thanks to a fundraising blitz from former deputy leader Paula Bennett who tapped richlisters, including New Zealand’s wealthiest man, for as much as $250,000 each last year. It is not clear how much of this funding was spent in 2022, and how much has been put aside for campaigning this year.

With Labour declaring just $150,000 in large donations last year, National raised more than $15 from its big money donors for every $1 Labour raised from its own large donors. However, Labour has historically relied on many smaller donations which are not immediately published by the Electoral Commission.

Labour’s coffers were boosted with a late donation of $50,000 from the family of Phillip Mills of Les Mills gym fame in December. Mills has previously donated to Labour and the Greens.

The Mills family donation was part of a Labour fundraising drive that encouraged a host of small donors to donate to the party in exchange for large donors pledging to match their donations up to $200,000. About $220,000 was raised in nine days, overshooting the $200,000 target.

The Act Party also raised big money, netting $1.1m in large donations in 2022.

Labour also managed to out-raise the Green Party, which collected $122,000 from large donations. All of this money came from co-leaders Marama Davidson and James Shaw who are obliged under the party’s constitution to tithe a share of their incomes to the party.

Under the donation laws that existed last year, registered political parties are required to declare if a single donor gives more than $30,000 in a twelve-month period. The Electoral Commission then publishes those donors’ names and the amount of the donation.

The names of people who donate $15,000 or more are also published, but these come in a party’s annual return to the Electoral Commission and are not published immediately, like donations over $30,000.

Because of this, the figures in this story include money raised from large donations of over $30,000 from a single donor and do not include smaller donations.

The family of Phillip Mills donated $50,000 to the Labour Party. Photo / Steven McNicholl

Bennett, the former deputy prime minister, told the Herald that National had some “very generous donors in 2022, they want to see a change of government and support National. It is expensive to run a campaign and pay for staff and the right voter information, as such all donations big and small are gratefully received, we can’t win without their support”.

National Party president Sylvia Wood said she was “thrilled” to have the donors’ backing.

“These donors understand how crucial it is for National to execute an effective party vote campaign and their financial support will drive our ability to do this. We’re so thankful to all of our donors, members and supporters for the support they give the National Party,” she said.

The biggest single donor was New Zealand’s wealthiest man, Graeme Hart, who donated $250,000 to National and $100,000 to Act. Fellow richlister Murray Bolton also chipped in $250,000 to the National Party as did Zuru toys co-founder Nick Mowbray.

National’s 2022 tally meant it raised more money in one year from large donors than Labour has raised since 2013, a year in which it raised over $400,000 in a large bequest.

Labour’s general-secretary Rob Salmond said while National received a “large number of donations from the wealthiest New Zealanders”, Labour was “proud to be supported by many thousands of donors - from all walks of life giving whatever they can afford”.

He accused National of a “narrow focus on the wealthiest New Zealanders, both in its policies and its donors”.

Salmond said that despite the funding disparity he was confident the parties would “mount competitive campaign operations”.

Last year bucked the trend of non-election years typically being quiet for political donations, which tend to peak in the months before the polls open.

In 2019, the year before the previous election, National raised just $50,000 from large donations. Collectively, political parties raised $987,000 from large donations that year, but more than a third of this was a bequest to the Green Party.

In 2016, the year before the 2017 election, National raised just $180,000. Overall, parties raised $617,000 that year, nearly half of which was a $283,000 donation to the Green Party.

Max Rashbrooke, who last year co-authored a study on donations in New Zealand politics, said the sum of money raised by National was “probably unprecedented in a non-election year for one of the major parties”, adding that in the past, new minor parties like the Internet Party, the Conservative Party, and TOP tended to post big donations from their wealthy founders.

Rashbrooke said that this raised questions of “access” and “influence” that donors might be getting in return for their money. He pointed to Labour’s plan to research how much tax the wealthy do or do not pay, the new top tax bracket, property investor taxes, and grumpiness at the Government’s Covid policy as reasons for the surge in National Party donations.

Former National Party deputy leader Paula Bennett headed a donations drive. Photo / Dean Purcell

He said that Labour’s support from unions and small donors might slightly even things up, but it was very unlikely that Labour made more than $2m in donations from small donors, which are mostly undeclared.

“I would be very surprised and staggered if Labour is raking in $2m in small donations,” he said.

Rashbrooke said the imbalance pointed to an election that might not be fought on an even playing field financially.

A big question for National will be whether it can sustain this level of fundraising in election year, or whether those big donations dry up. A question for Labour is whether it is able to tap sympathetic big money donors for cash this year, or whether it needs to rely on small donors opening their pockets during what looks set to be a difficult economic year for many.

NZ First managed one solitary large donation. It was from Troy Bowker, who donated $35,000, although this was donated in the 2021 calendar year and declared in 2022.