pn893. Political Roundup: Who is funding National to victory? The Big Business pipers call the tune

 

View in browser Political Roundup: Who is funding National to victory? BRYCE EDWARDS AUG 25   READ IN APP   National is not only winning the race towards the general election finish line, but is also miles ahead in raising money to campaign with. So far, the National Party has picked up $8.2m in big donations since the start of 2021. As RNZ reported this week, that’s seven times more money than the Labour Party. To alleviate any suspicions of quid pro quo deals, close scrutiny must be applied to these donors, along with any policy and law changes a National government might make that benefit them. Scrutiny of political donations is always important, of course, regardless of who’s in government. But given the sheer quantum of the donations that are currently going to National, extra vigilance about the influence of this big money is required. Potential conflicts of interest need to be identified and highlighted in order to avoid some of these large donations resulting in private gains for the already-wealthy. The huge donations going to National National had a particularly profitable fundraising year in 2022 – taking in $5m in large donations. In 2023, National has already declared $2 million in large donations – four times that of Labour. In this month alone, National has already declared $217,000 in large donations. National is trumpeting the huge amount of money coming its way. The party’s pollster David Farrar was quoted by RNZ on Wednesday, saying “The amount rolling in is unprecedented”, and “almost exponentially larger than you've had in the past”.

This Week's Party Jokes

Note: Links to Fiji and Pacific Island news see "COUNTRIES" under the main heading.

FTW For the Win

Judith Collins repeatedly challenged Government to protest a new French law that normalize paedophilia and decriminalize sex with children. It was "false news". Nothing of the sort had occurred.Her source was Yournewswire.com whose earlier posts included:

"Did the Pope forgive 4,444 paedophile priests in Australia?"

"Did London close 500churches and open 423 mosques?"

"Is Australia using chemtrials to forcibly vaccinate its people?" Pn32

Don Brash is in the news again. He exercised his right of free speech (sic!) to take a swing at John Key who he said did little to improve the economy ( it was largely coming right by itself) and he failed to abolish Maori seats.

Mike Hoskings -- the expert on everything --  thinks "Banning plastic bags is just a PR stunt." Simon Bridges said it "won't make any real difference (and) we "don't need to be told by government what to do". Did they not know that 65,000 NZers signed a petition to ban single-use plastic bags, and that the Packaging Forum said it would take an estimated 800 million bags out of circulation?

It's anyone's guess who leaked of Simon Bridges' travel expenses. Speaker Trevor Mallard, Labour, Parliamentary Services, Bridges for publicity, or a party rival. His expenses were emailed to every National MP as part of the process for sorting out the quarterly travel declarations. What's your guess?

Business confidence lowest for years !!! or ???
Read what Gordon Campbell had to say about this. He thinks measuring business confidence has become politicized. Coalition Government= Bad, National Government= Good. And he agrees with the Governor of the Reserve Bank that we're in good shape economically.

David Seymour, ACT leader with ½ percent of votes in last year's Election and one seat in Parliament, has unveiled a "Smaller Government Bill" that will reduce parliamentary seats from 120 to 100, reduce ministers from 31 to 20, and abolish the 7 Maori seats. Here we go on the Maori again. Tangata whenua in a legally bi-cultural society, with serious social and economic problems (e.g., an annual median income of $18,000 compared to the Pakeha $86.900). But there is no reason for them to be treated differently! Some people confuse equality with sameness. 

Seymour again. On Monday, his depiction of PM Jacinda Ardern as a clueless lightweight was yet another example of the double bind face by women who attain positions of political power. -- Gordon Campbell in Werewolf.