A Reform Architecture for Political Party Funding in Aotearoa New Zealand

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26686/pq.v19i1.8108

Keywords:

Political party funding, Donation reform, State funding, Tax credits, Democracy vouchers

Abstract

We recently published a comprehensive report on political party funding in Aotearoa New Zealand (Rashbrooke and Marriott, 2022). This article documents some of the issues we discovered in the process of writing that report and some of the solutions we propose to address these issues. We recommend stronger donation regulation: capping annual donations at $15,000 and donor identification for donations above $1,500. We also recommend increased state funding: for approximately $2 per voter per annum, ‘big money’ can be eliminated from the political finance arena. This improves transparency and – crucially – can significantly reduce the perception of influence from large donations.

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Author Biographies

Max Rashbrooke, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington

Max Rashbrooke is a senior associate of the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, and the author of the book Too Much Money: how wealth disparities are unbalancing Aotearoa New Zealand (Bridget Williams Books, 2021).

Lisa Marriott, Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington

Lisa Marriott is professor of taxation at the Wellington School of Business and Government, Victoria University of Wellington Te Herenga Waka.

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Published

2023-02-13

Issue

Vol. 19 No. 1 (2023): Policy Quarterly.

Section

Articles

License

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