Tag: Yikun Zhang

Green Party MP Marama Davidson has suggested the donation threshold for the disclosure of a donor’s name and address be lowered from NZ$15,000 to NZ$1,000. She has also proposed banning foreign donations outright and capping individual donations at NZ$35,000. Read more: New Zealand politics: foreign donations and political influence Donations and foreign money Foreign interference in domestic politics is an increasing phenomenon worldwide. Currently in New Zealand foreign donations to a party of up to NZ$1,500 are permissible. Moreover, foreign donations below this amount are not individually or collectively disclosed. A lower threshold would make it more difficult to evade name disclosure rules by splitting donations and attributing each part to a different donor. There is international precedent for setting much lower thresholds for anonymity than the Greens propose. For example, in Canada, the maximum amount of an anonymous donation was set at C$200 in 2015, while in Ireland it is currently €100. For example, between September 2015 and June 2018, the commission passed on only NZ$150,000 in anonymised money to parties via this channel. The fact that donors feel they are buying something should be cause for concern.