Stop powerful vested interests and preserve democracy: Green Party

The Green Party is calling for a major rethink of how political parties accept donations in New Zealand.

“The Greens want stricter rules on anonymity and increased public funding, so that political parties aren’t influenced by powerful vested interests”, Green Co-leader Marama Davidson said today

“The fact of the matter is, as long as political parties are accepting donations from powerful vested interests, there is a constant risk of corruption.

“It is clear that those vested interests have a tangible influence on the decision making of political parties. This is a threat to democracy and should change.

“Political parties are an important component of our democracy and if increasing state money for electioneering removes the influence of powerful vested interests, then it should be considered.

“At the moment the amount vested interests can donate whilst also maintaining anonymity is too high. This needs to be fixed so that there is more transparency around who is donating to political parties.

“Our democracy is precious and needs to be protected. It is time to consider major donation reform so that there is more transparency, and powerful vested interests no longer have influence within political parties”.

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