2022 donation returns
The Electoral Commission has published the party donation returns for 2022, and boy do they show a lot of people are donating money to change the Government.
A lot of focus has been on the amounts donated, but equally important is how many people are donating. Here is a summary table I have done.
| National | Labour | ACT | Greens | |
| Donations over $1,500 | $ 5,116,036 | $ 419,365 | $ 2,081,331 | $ 413,460 |
| Donors over $1,500 | 501 | 45 | 128 | 55 |
| Av Donation over $1,500 | $ 10,212 | $ 9,319 | $ 16,260 | $ 7,517 |
| Dons $1,501 to $5k | $ 979,581 | $ 85,498 | $ 174,635 | $ 110,820 |
| Donors $1,501 to $5k | 320 | 28 | 50 | 38 |
| Av $1,501 to $5k | $ 3,061.19 | $ 3,053.50 | $ 3,492.70 | $ 2,916.32 |
| Dons $5k to $15k | $ 1,509,668 | $ 87,960 | $ 666,297 | $ 46,800 |
| Donors $5k to $15k | 140 | 10 | 56 | 5 |
| Av $5k to $15k | $ 10,783 | $ 8,796 | $ 11,898 | $ 9,360 |
| Dons over $15k | $ 2,616,606 | $ 242,790 | $ 1,240,100 | $ 255,460 |
| Donors over $15k | 41 | 7 | 22 | 12 |
| Av over $15k | $ 63,820 | $ 34,684 | $ 56,368 | $ 21,288 |
So in terms of people donating over $1,500, National has had 501 donors, ACT 128, Greens 55 and Labour just 45. Not even Labour’s own caucus has donated over $1,500.
Now we can break these donors up into size. The small disclosable donations are those who donate $1,501 to $5,000. National had 320 of those, ACT 50, Greens 38 and Labour 28. The average donation in this range was $3,000 for National, Labour and Greens and $3,500 for ACT.
Next the medium disclosable donations of $5,001 to $15,000. National had 140, ACT 56, Labour 10 and Greens 5. Average donation ranged from $9,000 (Labour) to $12,000 (ACT).
Then the large disclosable donors of above $15,000. National had 41, ACT 22, Greens 12 and Labour just 7. Average size was $21,000 Greens, $35,000 Labour, $57,000 ACT and $63,000 National.
So there are two big stories here. The first is that National and Act have had a very very high level of donations for a non-election year. Between them over 600 people have donated over $1,500 to change the Government. I think this reflects a degree of hostility to the Government not seen before.
The other big story is how donations to Labour have dried up. Not even their caucus are donating to them. The Greens have had more donors over $1,500 than Labour.
Comparable years for Labour in Government are 2019 and 2007. Their level of disclosable donations in those years was:
- 2019: $780k
- 2007: $1,270k
Of course Labour has got the advantage of parliamentary funding for a caucus of 65, so they will be using that to the max up until the regulated period.