I try not to blog on the weekends, so I've ignored Phil Kitchin's latest delvings into NZ First's campaign finances. But they seem very murky indeed. When a donor insists on having someone inside the party office to represent their interests, and an MP talks openly about how much money he has saved them, then we're getting well beyond the normal business of "supporting democracy" (as they like to call it) into the outright purchase of power and policy. Today's revelations about further donations to Peter Dunne in exchange for his representing the Vela's interests on a select committee simply reinforce the point (and begin to sound an awful lot like paying people for acts done in their capacity as an MP - something for which Taito Philip Field is currently facing jail).
The Greens are right: we need a full inquiry into this. And, in the long term, we need public financing. Parties cut these shoddy deals for one reason and one reason only: because they need money. Remove the need, remove the corruption. It really is that simple.
