SST on secret donations

The SST has an article suggesting National urged many donors to make donations before the Electoral Finance Act was passed. This is hardly surprising.

I’m not sure of the exact date, but I think in April the Electoral Commission will publish the donation returns of the parties.

The article makes the common mistake of referring to disclosed donations as all funding.  It also ignores the $10,000 annual non disclosure limit which would allow someone to still donate $66,000 over three years without having their identity revealed. While donations over $10,000 make up much of a party’s income, they (or at least National) also get tens of thousands of small donations and sub which over a three year cycle would probably exceed $4 million or so.  I’m all for a law which requires disclosure of the large donors, but worth remembering they are not the only donors.