Trusts, Hypocrisy and Politics

It is ironic that the Media fascination with Winston’s fund raising exercises is built on the concerns that gave birth to the Electoral Finance Act.
The Act is designed to encourage transparency about the funding of political parties in New Zealand.

That N.Z. First is now revealed as being dependent on the same funding sources as all the other political parties in the electoral arena - donations from high income benefactors both individuals and business is hardly devastating news. It merely confirms what everyone has known for years - no political party of any size or credibility can exist without seeking out large donations and that, trusts have been used to hide the identities of the donors. The public have long known that the National Party has used secret trusts to channel monies into its accounts so what is different about N.Z. First resorting to the same devices?

To rail against the Electoral Finance Act because it is designed to reveal the sources of finance that support our Political Parties and thus remove any doubts about influence and policy manipulation and then attack N.Z. First because it has been shown as resorting to the devises of trusts and passing the begging bowl around big business in order to fund its activities is to reveal the depths of political hypocrisy that runs deep within the National Party as well as the lack of balance seen in the analysis of politics by those who profess to be qualified to comment.

One must, however, give Rodney Hide and ACT credit as ACT has always been up front about the reasons why its big business supporters have given money to it - as ACT’s policies areobviously designed to provide the pay offs from ACT policies designed to strip all State assets from the common good.