Friday, May 03, 2019



Labour's MPs don't support their own party

2018 party donation returns are out, showing that (as usual) National raked in the most money from those wanting to buy political influence. Interestingly, the Greens came second, and would have even allowing for the fact that over half their total came from a single posthumous bequest. But drilling into the numbers, that's because Green MPs tithe to their party: apart from them, there was only a single large donation ($20,000 from Auckland gym boss Phillip Mills).

What's interesting is where you look at Labour. Jacinda Ardern donated $18,800 in fortnightly payments. But no other Minister of MP declared anything. And looking at the small donations breakdown, they had a total of $104,550 - $73,000 of it in seven large donations, and $29,000 in sixteen smaller ones. There are 46 Labour MPs, of whom 18 are Ministers. While some of them may have donated amounts below the disclosure threshold, its safe to conclude that they do not support their party in the same way as the greens. Instead, they expect other people to fund their political careers and pyramid games. Why am I not surprised?