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Ryan Anderson / Stuff
Billy Te Kahika at the merger of Advance New Zealand and New Zealand Public Party.
More than $ 255,000 in donations have been made to a political party that was never registered, a loophole in the electoral laws that one political expert says is “unprecedented.”
The New Zealand Public Party has been criticized by former members and employees who allege up to $ 100,000 in koha collected at events, and kept in a can under leader Billy Te Kahika’s bed, is disregarded.
Complaints were filed with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Election Commission regarding missing donations, however the complaints are not being investigated.
The Election Commission said that because NZPP never registered as a party, it has no obligation to report donations.
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Andrew Geddis, professor of law and political studies at the University of Otago, said Te Kahika’s approach is unprecedented and that the existing regulations were not designed for a scenario where an entity operated as a political party but was not registered. .
“All the regulation we have on the actions of political parties does not apply to their [Te Kahika’s] political party.”
It means that NZPP, which has merged with Advance NZ, is not required to report the bands of donations that come into their accounts as “party membership fees” and “campaign donations”.
All of these donations have been deposited into the bank account of a limited liability company, of which Te Kahika and NZPP executive Michael Stace are the sole signatories.
Te Kahika said that she simply “ran out of time” to register the political party and this is supported by Stace
“The first meeting of the NZPP was on June 11,” Stace said.
“The Electoral Commission advises at least 8 weeks [before Writ Day] registration is required. The Commission informed the Parties that they recommend obtaining an application as soon as possible or, at the latest, in mid-June, ”he said.
“If mid-June is June 15, the collection, processing and gathering of members could not be done in four days. It is an onerous and rigorous process. “
Eight weeks before Court Order Day would have been June 21, at which point the NZPP database indicates that the party had 1,200 committed financial members.
A political party only needs 500 to register.
From the outside, the NZPP resembled a political party. It had a leader, a party secretary, party candidates, members, and many volunteers.
Stace was asked if NZPP had misled donors by accepting donations and membership dues when it was not a registered political party.
He responded by saying, “NZPP is contesting the elections” and “no one had been misled.”
Geddis said there are no laws that he was aware of that prevent people from acting as if they were a political party before registering as such.
“We have not had this kind of arrangement for New Zealand political parties in the past,” he said.
“Even going back to the days of the Alliance, which was made up of separate parties, all those separate parties were registered. This is the first time that we have a New Zealand politician campaigning as head of a political organization that is not registered and for which voters cannot vote directly.
Candidates could run under the NZPP banner in the regions even if the party is not registered.
