Labour hides $430,000 donation for over a year
The Electoral Commission has published the 2012 donation returns from registered political parties. They appear to reveal a major breach of electoral law by the Labour Party.
Donations over $15,000 only have to be disclosed annually, but donations over $30,000 must be disclosed within 10 working days of receipt.
Labour’s return shows they received $430,259.33 from the estate of Brian Dalley (ironically a professional property investor who made his riches from capital gains) between April and July 2012. They were required to disclose this to the Electoral Commission within 10 working days, but the Commissions say they were only notified on 9 May 2013. Their disclosure is 12 months late.
Unless there is an incredibly good reason for this, I presume the Electoral Commission will ask the Police to prosecute Labour. Not only does their Leader forget a massive US bank account for four years, the party fails to disclose a $430,000 donation for 12 months.
Other donations declared are:
- ACT – John Boscawen $24,000
- Conservative – Colin Craig $1,618,600
- Social Credit – Murray Gouk estate $25,000
- Greens – various MPs totalling $233,487
- National – Chris Parkin $16,850
- National – James Crisp Ltd $17,850
- National – Roncon Pacific Hotel Mgmt $22,000
- National – Scholar Hotel $24,000
- National – Graeme Douglas $25,000
- National – Cyril Smith $29,950
Also of interest is the disclosure of the total amount of donations received under $15,000 in brackets.
For donations between $1,500 and $5,000 National received a total of $255,000 and Labour $27,000. However for d0nations between $5,000 and $15,000 National had $380,000 and Labour $240,000. So Labour gets most of its money from large donors while National receives a fair amount from moderate sized donors (below $5,000).
UPDATE: According to Felix Marwick of NewstalkZB, the Electoral Commission have decided to take no action. I’m staggered.
Can you imagine what would have happened if National failed to disclose a $430,000 donation from a property developer for 13 months. It would be the lead item on the TV news, with opposition parties demanding the PM front up over the issue.
We live in a country where almost no electoral law transgression has been prosecuted in the last 10 years. It’s outrageous.