NZ First receives $100,000 in donations from rich-lister Auckland property developers Trevor Farmer and Mark Wyborn

New Zealand First, led by Winston Peters, received two donations totalling $100,000 recently. Photo / Alex Burton

Richlister property developers Trevor Farmer and Mark Wyborn are spreading the love - giving $50,000 each to New Zealand First after donating to National and Act last year.

The party last week disclosed the April donations to the Electoral Commission.

Last year, both men gave money to the National Party - Farmer contributing $100,000 and Wyborn $50,000.

The Act party had received double that from Farmer in the past two years, receiving $200,000. Wyborn had also given Act $50,000 last year on top of an earlier $50,000 in 2021.

However, it appears to be the first time the pair have donated to NZ First.

Mark Wyborn (left, seen here with former business partner Adrian Burr, who has since died), has donated large sums of money to political parties. Photo / NZ Herald

NZ First leader Winston Peters didn’t appear to know much about the donations but confirmed he did know the pair and had met them.

“I don’t know them very well but I know them, I know who they are.”

Peters didn’t want to speculate when asked whether his recent comments indicating his opposition to working in Government with Labour could have influenced the support.

“You’d have to ask them,” Peters replied.

NZ First also recently declared a $116,000 bequest from Hugh Barr, for which Peters told the Herald he was “extraordinarily grateful” and paid homage to Barr’s “practical environmental policy and a very deep thinking”.

The only other large donation declared by NZ First since 2008 was in 2021 from Troy Bowker, who featured in the recent controversy surrounding former minister Stuart Nash. Bowker had donated to Nash and subsequent communication between Nash and donors revealed Nash had broken rules in the Cabinet Manual, which governs how Cabinet ministers should act.

Last year, two men who handled donations for the New Zealand First Foundation (NZFF) were acquitted in the High Court after the Serious Fraud Office prosecuted them, alleging a fraudulent scheme to conceal nearly $750,000 in NZ First donations.

The judge found the payments to the NZFF were not “party donations” as defined under the Electoral Act. The Serious Fraud Office has sought leave to appeal that decision.

Farmer and Wyborn own arguably New Zealand’s most valuable land in Auckland’s Viaduct and in the suburb of Newmarket.

The website of their property investment company Tramco boasts more than $2 billion in assets, although it’s suspected the value is much higher.

The assets include 14 hectares of Auckland’s waterfront, 28ha of “well-located properties located predominantly in Auckland on key transport routes”, and the more than 25,000ha Wairakei Estate farm.