The Justice Committee has called for submissions on the Electoral Amendment Bill. Submissions are due by Wednesday, 31 August 2022, and can be made at the link above.
The bill improves disclosure of party finances, lowering the declaration threshold to $5,000 and requiring parties to disclose their annual financial statements. But it would also grant greater secrecy to ultra-rich donors, by ending the immediate declaration of donations over $30,000. And of course amendments to it would be a perfect way of plugging the loophole exposed by the NZ First Foundation trial, which now allows parties to bypass the entire transparency regime and receive unlimited amounts of money in secret, provided they launder it through a trust.
In short, this is an important bill, and if we don't want the rich buying our politicians and controlling our elections, we should speak up on it.
