This is edition 2026/099 of the Ten@10 newsletter.
Hi all,
This is the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.
Enjoy!
1. The honours list is open for business
Bryce Edwards
- 🏛️ New Zealand's King's Birthday Honours list has again drawn scrutiny for overlapping with political donor networks tied to the governing parties.
- 💰 Peter John Thompson, managing director of Barfoot & Thompson, donated $46,388 to National in 2025 and a further $22,012 just five weeks before today's honours announcement.
- 🎖️ Thompson received a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for "services to philanthropy and rugby" in this morning's list.
- 🏘️ Barfoot & Thompson sells roughly four in every ten Auckland homes and sits at the centre of the real-estate industry's political donation network.
- 💰 Since 2021, the real-estate sector has funnelled more than $2.5 million to governing parties, with 97% flowing to National, ACT and NZ First.
- 🔵 In 2014, then-MP Chris Hipkins named Garth Barfoot in Parliament as a National donor who received an honour under the Key government; Garth Barfoot donated $50,000 to National in February 2026.
- ⚖️ Scott O'Donnell, executive director of the $2 billion H.W. Richardson Group, was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for "services to business" this morning.
- 🔍 O'Donnell's Dynes Transport donated $20,000 to NZ First in July 2024; a Dynes joint venture subsequently received an $8 million Crown loan overseen by NZ First minister Shane Jones.
- 🏢 Winston Peters appointed O'Donnell to the KiwiRail board in July 2025 despite Treasury warning his interests would "significantly conflict" with KiwiRail.
- ⚠️ KiwiRail chair Suzanne Tindal found 11 conflict-of-interest companies when she checked O'Donnell's disclosures herself; he had initially declared only four.
- 📉 O'Donnell resigned from the KiwiRail board after fewer than seven months of a three-year term, citing a new Australian business venture.
- 🔥 The author stops short of alleging a literal transaction, but argues appearances of money buying access undermine public trust regardless of intent.
- 🧾 Honours nominations take months to process, but critics say the systemic pattern of donors receiving honours is the core problem, not any single case.
