Third Party expenditure in 2008
The Electoral Commission has published the details of spending by registered third parties in 2009. From largest to smallest they are:
- CTU $104,110
- PSA $71,304
- Free Speech Coalition $29,491
- Dairy Workers Union $16,740
- NZ Meat Workers Union $8,571
- EPMU $5,690
- Maritime Union $3,282
- Vote for the Environment $1,296
- NUPE $1,285
- Health Cuts Hurt $293
So the total union was a bit over $200,000. And nine out of ten third parties that spent money were clearly left wing – in fact the FSC was the only expenditure from the right. So again when the left go on abour big money in politics, remember the left spent six times as much.
Some interesting details in the individual returns. The CTU spent $35,000 on 300,000 flyers (the real cost would have been all the paid union staff distributing them) and they spent just over $20,000 on their You Tube ads attacking Bill English and John Key. Also Labour approved $47,000 of their costs reminding us of how closely linked they are.
Seven unions donated money to the CTU for their campaign – the largest was the PPTA at $50,000.
Interesting the two unions that both spent over $30,000 had qualified audit reports in which they say they can not form an opinion as to whether the returns are correct. The EFA is such a bad confusing law, that the Auditors said they can not know if the law has been complied with. And this is no surprise – the Institute of Accountants warned of this before it was passed, and Labour and Greens ignored the advice.
The Dairy Workers Union appear to have misunderstood the donations return. It is meant to be for them to list what donations they received. Instead they have listed the donations they made – $10,000 to CTU, $12,000 to Labour and $3,000 to the Greens.
In May we will get to see the donations returns for the political parties.