This is edition 2026/191 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. Democracy Briefing: The donors’ election
Bryce Edwards - The Democracy Project
- 🐟 Campbell McManaway’s Cando Fishing gave NZ First $30,000 in August. He told Newsroom: “$30,000 is not much when you’re talking a $200 million industry.”
- 💰 Edwards’ count of the Electoral Commission’s large-donation register puts disclosed contributions above $7.5 million, already more than the whole of 2023 with a month of campaigning left.
- 📊 Act leads on about $2.37 million, then National $2.29 million, Labour $890,000, NZ First $833,000, Opportunity $492,000 and the Greens $447,000.
- ⚖️ The governing parties have about $5.5 million against $1.45 million for Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori: almost four dollars for every opposition dollar.
- 🏭 Graeme Hart’s Rank Group ($500,000 to National, $200,000 to Act) and Zuru’s Nick Mowbray ($250,000 and $225,000) account for more than $1.1 million.
- 🍕 Labour’s Jill Day says an election costs it about $5 million, against a broadcasting allocation of about $900,000. Its 2023 small donations averaged $50, so matching Rank Group would take around 14,000 of them.
- 🎙️ Sir John Key mocked the idea that being a billionaire is morally questionable, citing Hart. Edwards notes no coverage he saw mentioned Rank Group’s $500,000 to National.
- 🗳️ Act has more than five times the Greens’ large donations despite a smaller 2023 vote (8.6% against 11.6%), and Kim Dotcom’s $3.5 million won the Internet Party no seat.
- 🔒 Takeaway: the money is not buying many votes, Edwards says. Sections on “The donors’ veto” and whether the winners will change the rules are behind the paywall.
