6 May 2020

NZ First stays silent on foundation donations

From Checkpoint, 6:23 pm on 6 May 2020

New Zealand First has once again opted not to name any donations from the mysterious foundation bankrolling the party on its electoral return.

But an electoral law expert says for the first time the party seems to be including donations to the New Zealand First Foundation in an aggregated total - which he believes calls into question the accuracy of returns from previous years.

And - for the first time since 2008 - the party has named two external donors in its returns.

One is a Wellington property investment company that agitated strongly against a capital gains tax and the other, a wood exporter who owns a private island in the Bay of Islands.

Guyon Espiner and Kate Newton from RNZ's In Depth team have been looking at this story. Kate Newton filed this report.