"What's good about this country politically is on pretty shaky foundations. It wouldn't be hard to wreck it," - legal expert Tim Kuhner
New Zealand has a "historic opportunity" to reform laws that expose its electoral system to corruption, a legal expert says.
Politics has been dogged by donations scandals, with the Serious Fraud Office currently prosecuting both Labour and National in the High Court.
While some changes are being made ahead of next year's election, they're contested, specific and will come ahead of a sweeping review of the electoral system Timothy Kuhner argues is a rare chance to make more meaningful fixes.
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Photo: RNZ
A fullbright senior scholar in Spain where he studied United States democracy, Kuhner's now an associate professor at the University of Auckland. His report card for Aotearoa's protections against corruption is not positive.
"I assumed, coming here and seeing its reputation for such low levels of corruption, that it was a pretty regulated set of electoral laws ... when I learned that there's no rules in terms of limiting donations or the source of donations besides foreign individuals and entities - and that's been pretty recent that was drastically limited - and seeing that there's really essentially no regulation of the lobbying industry, I was pretty taken aback by that.
"It made me think that what's good about this country politically is on pretty shaky foundations. It wouldn't be hard to wreck it."
He says the ideological battle over the influence of big corporations has played itself out across the world, and has already arrived in New Zealand.
"The results of it are that we lose our ability to conceive of politics as a place where everyone matters and where non-economic values should be aired and respected; [conversely] where politics becomes a marketplace, and so everything that isn't really profitable to the people who have the most power economically in society goes into disrepair. That danger has played itself out really well across the world."
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New Zealand has been confronted by scandals over political donations, leading to court cases involving several political parties.
One case still before the courts sees the Labour and National parties accused of hiding large donations by splitting them across several payments and donors - including, allegedly, fake donors.
The separate New Zealand First Foundation case saw two men cleared because $750,000 given to the foundation was legally considered not to be a party donation, and no deception was made.
The Crown is appealing the decision, and the government is bringing in changes to close that loophole.
However, it also plans to make more changes: lowering the amount at which donors must be declared from $15,000 to $5000; expanding eligibility for overseas voters; and requiring parties to publish financial statements, the number and value of non-anonymous donations below $1500, and the proportion of non-monetary donations.
Justice Minister Kiri Allan says there's public demand for it.
But National's Justice Spokesperson Paul Goldsmith opposed them, and says lower donation thresholds will increase administration costs for - effectively - volunteer organisations, and people may have good reasons to want to keep their identity secret.
"Particularly, concern around people's being targeted, concern about perceived risk to the safety of the family and employment and business interests, and some people being concerned about being associated with a particular party could adversely impact their ability to secure government contracts."
Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
The Green Party's Golriz Ghahraman, who recently had her own member's bill to strengthen electoral law drawn from the biscuit tin, says those with money already enjoy an unfair playing field.
ACT leader David Seymour says the government should at least wait for bipartisan consensus.
Regardless, overseas voting changes are temporary. Allan is waiting for the findings of a panel of six experts reviewing the entire electoral system - apart from online voting and alternatives to MMP - before making such a move permanent.
Lawyer, director and chief executive Deborah Hart chairs the panel and says it will cover things like term length, party funding and rules, accessibility and eligibility for voters.
"It enables us to do almost, like, a warrant of fitness check over the whole system and what we're really wanting to do is to safeguard the system and make improvements for ourselves in future generations," she says.
Meanwhile, Kuhner says politics in the United States is more corrupt, but it's also more transparent. He hopes it will be able to tighten up high disclosure thresholds, and other vulnerabilities. He cites research showing most people would support donation limits - particularly for corporations.
University of Auckland associate professor of law Timothy Kuhner Photo: University of Auckland
"Honestly if the general public is made aware of how porous the system is and how vulnerable to systemic corruption the system is, I think the general public would very much support donation limits .... they don't have to be draconian, they can allow still some money to come in from private sources ... just not hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands or the kind of money that ordinary New Zealanders would never have available to give to political parties."
The independent review panel is releasing a discussion paper for consultation on electoral reform this month and will ask again for public feedback on draft recommendations from April 2023.
In today's Focus on Politics podcast Political Reporter Anneke Smith exposes the vulnerable state of New Zealand's democracy and examines the political response.
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