Following the political donation scandal that has seen Winston Peters step down as minister of foreign affairs, become under investigation by the Serious Fraud Office, and likely lose his seat in the election in a few months time, TV3 has reported on another politician who “has secretly met with a wealthy businessman who is a generous political donor.” In this instance, the politician is National Party leader John Key and the wealthy businessman, British billionaire Lord Michael Ashcroft.
The BBC describe Ashcroft as the “Tories’ troublesome tycoon”, stating that he has amassed an “immense personal fortune built up through ruthless deal making which has often shocked and unsettled the city of London”.
When asked if Lord Ashcroft was offering donations Key replied “No...I don’t discuss donations anyway. But it wouldn’t be possible for him to give anyway - he’s an offshore entity.” Key is correct that accepting donations from Ashcroft would be illegal, whether he is lying about their discussion is a matter of speculation.

All the media attention given to political donations from million or billionaires has ignored what is now the biggest source of political party finance: backdoor state funding. This is something that has been researched by political scientist Bryce Edwards, who wrote in a 2006 guest column for the Herald

About 1200 staff are employed by the Ministerial and Parliamentary Services, many of whom carry out party political research, marketing and organising. Out in the electorates, regional party organisers (previously paid for by the party organisation) have been replaced by electorate agents (paid for by the Parliamentary Service), and the electorate offices that they work in are now de facto regional party headquarters. Mail-outs, glossy leaflets and newspaper advertisements are also paid for by parliamentary funding.

In this election maybe voters should focus less of what political parties are doing with money from overseas businessmen, and more on the campaigning they are doing with our tax dollars.