Political parties are not charities

John Key is in trouble again, this time for claiming that his golf game with Oravida owner Stone Shi was the result of a donation to charity. Now it turns out that the "charity" was the National Party. Which is just a little deceitful. Since Key is obviously confused, here's some help:

A charity in New Zealand law is an organisation established to fulfil a "charitable purpose", such as "the relief of poverty, the advancement of education or religion, or any other matter beneficial to the community". A political party is a body established to fulfil a political purpose, such as advocating a particular political point of view, competing for and winning political office, or distributing jobs and government funding to its donors and cronies. A political purpose is not "charitable", and charities which engage in politics get deregistered.

And while we're at it: the National Party does not appear in the register of charities. it is an offence to misrepresent a body as a charity when it is not. Maybe Key should be a little more careful with his language?