The National Party’s candidate for New Plymouth in last year's election failed to disclose Auckland property investors had donated large sums of money to back his campaign to win the local seat.
David MacLeod, who successfully won the seat off Labour’s Glen Bennett, received $65,000 in donations from Aucklanders — which he failed to disclose until Monday.
One of these $10,000 donations came from a supermarket owner, Jason Witehira, but most came from property investors or developers, some of whom are worth hundreds of millions and were not residents in the New Plymouth electorate.
The wealthy donors from the Auckland region with significant property interests were Trevor Farmer, Mark Wyborn, Hugh Jones, Gary Lane, Peter Francis, and Colin Reynolds.
In total, MacLeod failed to disclose $178,394 worth of donations when filing his return for the 2023 election. Most, but not all of this money, was donated in large sums during 2022.
The New Plymouth MP only declared $29,268 on his return to the Electoral Commission in February this year, apparently believing he only needed to report donations from 2023.
However, he also under-reported his 2023 donations by $10,059 — or almost 25%.
National picked up on the problem when it was completing its annual consolidation of accounts in May and contacted MacLeod’s electoral office.
Yesterday (Monday), the MP filed a new return with the Electoral Commission declaring total donations of $207,662 and apologising for the previous return — which only showed $29,268.
“This error was inadvertent, and I am extremely disappointed in myself for not spotting it,” he wrote in a letter to the Commission.
“There was no ill intent — I mistakenly thought the return was for 2023 only, and the 2022 donations had already been filed. Clearly, I was incorrect”.
Prime Minister and National Party leader Christopher Luxon has stood MacLeod down from his positions on the Environment and Finance and Expenditure Select Committees. The MP had been chairing the committee hearing a huge number of submissions on the Government's controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill.
No small mistake
Max Rashbrooke, an author and researcher who writes about wealth and democracy, said there needed to be consequences for this type of failure — even if it wasn’t intentional.
“This is a very large amount of money coming from very wealthy Aucklanders and property developers. We can’t have a country where it is okay to fail to disclose that kind of money.”
MacLeod raised at least $65,000 for his New Plymouth campaign from donors who lived hundreds of kilometres away, on the other side of the North Island.
Letting the error go without some kind of punishment would send a message to future candidates that disclosures did not need to be taken seriously, Rashbrooke said.
“It is so important that we know who is funding politicians, that I do not think this is something that can be taken lightly”.
Rashbrooke said $180,000 was a lot of money in the context of an electorate race, where candidates are only allowed to spend $32,000 in advertising during the official period.
The rest of that money had to be spent on advertising prior to the campaign period, or on back-office functions and other non-advertising items.
MacLeod said he believed he was only filing a return for donations made in 2023 but even then he missed a quarter of them. He disclosed $29,268 when he received almost $40,000.
He was in an “extraordinary” position that he could afford to forget about a $10,000 donation, Rashbrooke said.
The law
Candidates are legally required to disclose their total donations and the identities of anyone who has contributed over $1,500. Not doing so is a crime under the Electoral Act.
The seriousness of the offence depends on the intent. If an incorrect return was filed deliberately, that may be a “corrupt practice” and result in a two year prison sentence.
Even filing a late return “without reasonable excuse” can be considered a corrupt practice.
However, if the candidate can prove there was no intention to hide donations and that they took all reasonable steps to ensure an accurate return, then it is just an ‘illegal practice’.
In that case, the candidate could be subject to a fine of up to $40,000.
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