A government lavishes corporate welfare on a project managed by one of its donors, then appoints him as a director of a government body. The USA? No, its National's New Zealand:
A newly-appointed KiwiRail board director is associated with a company which donated to NZ First.A $8 million loan and a fat package of directors fees for a $20,000 donation? That's a hell of a return on investment...Scott O'Donnell is one of the four directors of Dynes Transport Tapanui, which donated $20,000 to NZ First in July 2024.
The company is also involved in a project which recently received a government regional infrastructure loan of $8 million.
The government says none of this is a conflict of interest, and its all perfectly OK. Bullshit. Its simply naked corruption - and the NZ public recognises that instantly. If our political class can't, then it shows how corrupt and institutionally rotten they are.
So how can we stop this? Getting money out of politics - banning donations and publicly funding political parties - is the ideal solution. But if that's not going to happen, we need a cordon sanitaire between money and politics. Which means long cooling off periods - at least the length of a parliamentary term - before a former donor is allowed to be appointed to any government role or receive any honour, and similar prohibitions on any body they control or are involved in being awarded any government contract or discretionary benefit. And if this deters donations, then it will simply confirm the suspicion that the primary driver is corruption.
