Labour Party election funding murky at best

c Stan Blanch 2008


The stench surrounding the funding of the Labour Party by ex pat Kiwi Owen Glenn prior to the 2005 election just gets more pungent and darkly ominous, as the weeks and months pass.

Glenn gave NZ$500,000.00 to Labour Party coffers to bolster their empty pockets in the run up the the 2005 stolen election(Labour took over $800,000.00 of taxpayer money to illegally fund their campaign) nothing wrong with that, big money shouldn't be a problem to fund an election run.

It seems though that there is more than meets the eye to this generous individuals gift.

If the bestowing for Glenn, of a New Years honour this year wasn't enough, it seems that the layers of the onion that are the gift to the Labour Party appear to be peeling off to reveal a bit of a rotten core.

It certainly isn't the gift that keeps on giving.

Glenn has revealed that he gifted the money to Labour because of concerns that he had over the Brethren spending their own money(not taxpayers dear readers) to campaign against Labour and the Greens.

But curiously, Glenn made his first donation of $200,000 to Labour in 2004, well before the Brethren's involvement in the 2005 election became public knowledge.

A slip of memory on Glenn's part?

According to Labour Party president Mike Williams yes: "Owen is confused about the timing".

Williams seems very confused since he himself admitted in a May 5 2005 story in the New Zealand Herald that Glenn had been paying funds directly into Labour Party coffers beginning in 2004 and to the tune of $200,000.

The biggest possible scandal exists directly with the Prime Minister though.

Glenn has been reported as saying that he was offered the post of Minister of Transport by Helen Clark, in order to get him back to New Zealand.

Clark has denied Glenn's assertion that he was offered a job in the Labour Cabinet saying on Friday, "...it did not happen..."

Now we have all heard the Prime Minister lie before and caught out multiple times, so Fridays denial seems a trifle perplexing given the status Owen Glenn has reached in his business life. Impeccable business acumen, honesty and straightforwardness have been trademarks of his throughout his distinguished life.

Glenn also loaned the party $100,000.00 to employ fund raisers after the 2005 election, it was paid back without interest but the interest forgone seems to have been in breach of the electoral rules.

I'm unsure whether the changing of the appropriate electoral laws by Labour after the 2005 election to make their illegal pilfering of $800,000.00 of taxpayer funds legal has also made this latest reported breach legal retrospectively, but it bares thinking about when you cast a vote this year.

Whichever way you look at this situation it stinks worse than Parakura Horomia's socks on a wet hot day in Wellington.

Labour have passed laws to crack down on other political parties for the 2008 election but it seems they have some skeletons in the closet left over from 2005.

The funding from Labours wealthy foreign domiciled backers during the 2005 election needs to be looked at more closely by the appropriate authorities and the public of this country cant be fobbed off again by the likes of a Prime Minister who wouldn't know the truth if it came up and shook her hand then slapped her in the face with it.

The public have a right to the truth.

Clearly this scrutiny should also be applied to the coming election for if we can be sure of one thing, Labour will try similar ploys again.


Related Political Animal reading

NZ Herald gets nasty over the Electoral Finance Bill
Electoral Finance Bill: Day of Protest
Electoral Finance Bill: The purpose is clear
Mike Moore turns the knife on Electoral Finance Bill

C Political Animal 2008