Government retreat on banning large anonymous political donations sparks anger (and so it should)

Alt Tv/Fleet FM Breakfast News
Government retreat on banning large anonymous political donations sparks anger (and so it should)
There was an angry response yesterday to a realisation that new legislation reforming election finance laws falls short of what was initially foreshadowed by Labour. Contrary to early recommendations on the bill by Justice Minister Mark Burton in a Cabinet paper, political parties are still able to accept unlimited anonymous donations from any person, trust or organisation.
Mr Burton had recommended that anonymous donations be restricted to below particular disclosure thresholds: $10,000 for political parties and $1000 for individual candidates. However, under the bill, tabled on Monday, limits of anonymous donations will apply only to outside groups that want to campaign during election year and will be set at $500. A spokesman for the Coalition for Open Government, Steven Price, said: "We are appalled the centrepiece of the bill has been dropped and the promise to make secret trusts and donations more transparent has been broken." Transparent democratic process demands that everyone should know who is funding which political party, that way we can guard against undue influence and the dangers of plutocracy with the gap between rich and poor growing astronomically (10% of NZ now owns over 50% of the wealth) the principle of one person one vote must be upheld by a frame work of rules that limit the influence of money by at least keeping the process as transparent as possible, that Labour have backed down is gutless move that only benefits them and National.