Who in National refused to donate?

I see DPF had a go at working out who in Labour refused to donate to the party. He got this information from the Electoral Commission’s recently published list of donations made to political parties over $10,000. It’s all great detective work by DPF. I wondered whether the same kind of robust and difficult analysis could be applied to the National Party. It was exceedingly difficult (drawing on public information and all), but here’s my analysis of which of the 48 National Party MPs did not donate to their political party during 2007 calendar year (with the same caveat that Davey used that some of these MPs might have donated less than $10,000 disclosure threshold):

1. Ardern, Shane
2. Auchinvole, Chris
3. Bennett, David
4. Bennett, Paula
5. Blue, Jackie
6. Blumsky, Mark
7. Borrows, Chester
8. Brownlee, Gerry
9. Carter, David
10. Carter, John
11. Clarkson, Bob
12. Coleman, Jonathan
13. Collins, Judith
14. Connell, Brian
15. Dean, Jacqui
16. English, Bill
17. Finlayson, Christopher
18. Foss, Craig
19. Goodhew, Jo
20. Goudie, Sandra
21. Groser, Tim
22. Guy, Nathan
23. Hayes, John
24. Heatley, Philip
25. Henare, Tau
26. Hutchison, Paul
27. Key, John
28. King, Colin
29. Mapp, Wayne
30. McCully, Murray
31. Peachey, Allan
32. Power, Simon
33. Rich, Katherine
34. Roy, Eric
35. Ryall, Tony
36. Shanks, Katrina
37. Simich, Clem
38. Smith, Lockwood
39. Smith, Nick
40. te Heuheu, Georgina Manunui
41. Tisch, Lindsay
42. Tolley, Anne
43. Tremain, Chris
44. Wagner, Nicky
45. Wilkinson, Kate
46. Williamson, Maurice
47. Wong, Pansy
48. Worth, Richard

So, 48 out of 48 of National’s MPs REFUSED (to use Davey’s words) to donate more than $10,000 to their party - unlike, as DPF helpfully points out, most of the MPs in the Labour Caucus. So, DPF’s point was what exactly?

It’s just dawned on me that another explanation is that some or many of National’s MPs - particularly millionaires like Mr Key - might have donated to the Party through one of the hidden Trusts that National uses to mask its secret backers. Of course, we the public of New Zealand wouldn’t know because these Trust donors have been cloaked in secrecy.

[Zoster adds:  It should be noted the Green Party MPs routinely undertake this kind of tithing - much to their collective credit]

Davey Loves The Largesse

Farrar’s ‘Quickest planned trip Ever’ post:

A brief conversation this evening:

Friend: Fancy going on a road trip
DPF: Yeah, why not
Friend: Great.
DPF: How long for:
Friend: Around a week
DPF: Okay. When are you thinking
Friend: Say early July
DPF: (checks diary) Looks good to me
Friend: Excellent that’s agreed
DPF: Are we doing North or South Island
Friend: Neither - England
DPF: England?
Friend: Yep, we can go visit Frithie
DPF: Oh, why the hell not - should be fun

So in the space of five minutes I’ve agreed on a whim to fly to the other side of the world for a road trip. I like having a flexible lifestyle

- Davey, we get it. You’re rolling in cash because you own a company that does National’s polling and market research. National’s you’re only client (apart from Family First) and they pay you well, so the company runs itself and you can spend most of your time blogging (and you save on costs by doing the polling work out of National HQ).

You’re living the good life on the back of National’s secret donors. Hurray for you.