Explanation Day
Today is the day Winston says he will front up on the latest allegations. He was planning to just go on the offensive and attack the media, but now Sir Bob Jones has confirmed first hand that his $25,000 donation went into a secret trust fund, that tactic isn’t going to work.
The Herald reports that The Spencer Trust is so secret that not even the NZ First Party President has heard of it:
Mr Peters’ New Zealand First Party has been shocked to learn that Sir Robert Jones donated $25,000 to the party through a previously unheard-of trust, the Spencer Trust.
Party president George Groombridge, who has been on the party’s board for eight years, said yesterday he had never heard of the trust and did not know Sir Robert had been a donor.
They also report whom NZ First blames for the leaks:
It is understood New Zealand First believes damaging leaks about donations have been coming from former parliamentary chief of staff Graham Harding, and that Mr Peters plans to point the finger today.
Mr Harding rejected the allegation yesterday, saying: “It is simply not the case. I didn’t know about them until I read about them over my cornflakes.”
I have no real idea who is leaking, but like most have some theories – Graham Harding wasn’t one of them. Graham worked for Winston for over a decade and in my experience is a honest decent bloke.
A second NZ Herald story gives a good summary of all the donations revealed this week, and what has been declared to the Electoral Commission.
The Dom Post reports that Helen Clark has accepted Winston’s word that NZ First has done nothing illegal.
But Miss Clark said she was not concerned about the latest reports. She had been assured that “he believes everything he has done is legal and he is coming back to New Zealand … to clear the matter up”.
Colin Espiner adds up some numbers:
A search of the commission’s register shows that since 1996, over the past 12 years, NZ First has declared just $127,000 worth of donations in total of which $82,178 came in one year alone, 1996.
By comparison, National has declared $5.27 million in donations since 1996; Labour $4.92m, ACT $1.02m, and the Green Party $733,685.
So this means either:
- NZ First gets far far less money than other small parties
- NZ First gets much the same money as other small parties, but all of it is small donations
- NZ First gets the same or more money as other small parties, but the larger donations are not declared as they go through hidden trusts
I am sure there are other options also.