KEY POINTS:
The lid has been lifted on political party donations last year, although once again faceless trusts and anonymous donors cloud just who is behind much of the money.
In what may be the final examples of anonymous donations before an expected clampdown this year, the Electoral Commission yesterday
released details of declared donations of $10,000 or more received by political parties during the calendar year.
The list shows that National received just under $170,000 in total, with $146,000 of that coming from the combination of the Waitemata Trust, the Holland Memorial Trust, and the Russell McVeagh Trust Account.
The rest came from regular political donor Westpac bank, which gave identical amounts to both National and Labour.
The use of trusts by National to channel donations, although legal, has drawn criticism and the party has indicated it is prepared for more open disclosure as a result of the current rewrite of rules involving donations.
Last night party president Judy Kirk said she was not sure what would happen with the trusts.
"That's all being discussed. We've said that we are keen to clear up any messiness around them," she said.
On Labour's side the donations register hints at the story which dominated that party's fundraising for several months - the "big whiparound" drive to pay back more than $800,000 of taxpayers' money that the Auditor-General found was wrongly spent around the 2005 election.
Labour's register shows a $17,504 donation from West Coast/Tasman MP Damien O'Connor, who appears to have been among the first in his party to pay his share of the bill.
The party paid the full amount to the Parliamentary Service last week, but some other Labour MPs' contributions would take time to appear because they were made this year.
Even then the individual contributions may not be available because of a quirk in the law which means those who gave the money to a caucus account rather than directly to the party are unlikely to be separated out and named.
The Government is expected to introduce a bill soon to substantially clamp down on anonymous donations, with the hope it will be passed by the end of the year so the new rules apply for next year's election.
2006 Political donations
Progressive Party
Jim Anderton $10,520.26
Labour Party
Westpac Banking Corp $23,500
Steven Wong $23,000
Griffin Property (2004) Ltd $20,000
Damien O'Connor $17,504
BSJ Construction Ltd $15,000
Helen Clark $11,049.04
Sir Geoffrey Palmer $10,935
Engineering, Printing & Manufacturing Union $20,000
The Greens
Jeanette Fitzsimons $14,289.27
Susan Bradford $11,789.10
Susan Kedgley $14,080.49
Keith Locke $12,444.10
Nandor Tanczos $11,784.10
Metiria Turei $12,980.49
National Party
Holland Memorial Trust $88,000
Russell McVeagh Trust Account $40,000
Westpac Banking Corp $23,500
Waitemata Trust $18,166