Anonymous donations to Labour?

Kiwiblog reports that the Electoral Commission has updated its list of "big donors" to political parties, and that among the top nine (the smallest of which is $24k), there is not a single donation to the Labour Party. Now Keeping Stock realises that the ruling elite isn't actually the flavour of the month, but surely someone would chip in a reasonably substantial sum of dosh. No? Then again, if Ian Wishart's allegations are true, why would Labour need to disclose donations when they can just host a few "fundraising dinners" - read this from today's TGIF editorial:

Our sources told us of donations being made at the Jade Terrace restaurant. We rang Labour’s Mike Williams who admitted, yes, Labour has held Chinese fundraising events at the Jade Terrace restaurant. But, he warns, we don’t know who the individual donors might be because we just put all the money into the kitty as an aggregate donation.

Seems like a great way to launder donations anonymously, or at least while appearing anonymous. No paper trail to prove how much you personally have given, or even whether you have given at all.

According to one Labour source, the Chinese fundraising nights have been known to raise up to $200,000 for political parties – just in one night. So if you turn up with $20,000 cash in your pocket and drop it in the bucket, who’s going to know?

Talk about a fantastic way to get around the Electoral Finance Act’s requirement for donations to be declared – call it a fundraiser and have a whip-around!

I say “appearing” anonymous, because in truth Labour knows who was invited to the fundraisers, so it knows the people are probably supporters. That’s all the party needs to know, and all the knowledge necessary for a perception of a conflict of interest to arise.

Yes indeed. It sounds as though Labour has found a very convenient way to circumvent its own Electoral Finance Act. Keeping Stock reckons that you can trust Labour to say one thing and then do the opposite, which is quite important when "This is an election about trust"!