{"id":608271,"date":"2026-09-22T15:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T15:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/608271\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T15:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T15:20:11","slug":"greens-plan-to-cap-political-donations-block-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/608271\/","title":{"rendered":"Greens plan to cap political donations, block companies\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Green Party has announced a plan to cap political donations, block companies from giving money to parties and create a public register of professional lobbyists. <\/p>\n

The proposed changes, announced today, would be made through two bills that the party says would \u201cget big money and influence out of politics\u201d. <\/p>\n

Under the changes, individuals would only be able to give a maximum of $30,000 to a party and its candidates in an election cycle. <\/p>\n

Only individuals could donate, with companies, trusts, and other organisations blocked. <\/p>\n

Parties would be required to publish the names and postcodes of anyone donating over $1000, down from $6000. <\/p>\n

“Our democracy should work for everyone, not just the wealthy few,\u201d Greens co-leader Marama Davidson said about donations. <\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, a handful of very rich and powerful people and corporations can buy access and influence the government for their benefit.”<\/p>\n

\"Greens<\/p>\n

Greens co-leaders Marama Davidson (left) and Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick (right). (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

“This election we’ve already seen some of the wealthiest people in the country donating over $100,000 to parties<\/a> in Government. To put this into perspective, a $200,000 donation from the richest person in the country is the same share of their wealth as $2.76 from someone with the average level of wealth,” Davidson said. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Greens’ lobbying changes would create a register for professional lobbyists, requiring them to report who they lobbied and what they lobbied for every four months. <\/p>\n

Ministers would have a two-year stand-down period before they can lobby, while other MPs, ministerial staff, and senior public servants would have to wait one year. <\/p>\n

An independent Lobbying Integrity Commission would run the register, write the code of conduct, and enforce the rules. <\/p>\n

“While lobbying is legal and a part of politics, the problem is that almost none of it is on the record,” co-leader Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick said. <\/p>\n

TVNZ has extensive coverage of the election campaign. (Source: TVNZ)<\/p>\n

She said the laws would let the public know who politicians were listening to. <\/p>\n

“Real estate agents, lawyers and electricians all have to meet professional standards, and lobbyists should too.<\/p>\n

“None of this will affect ordinary people talking to their MP. Submissions, petitions, union bargaining and Treaty settlement negotiations remain unchanged.” <\/p>\n

The Opportunity Party also introduced a similar policy<\/a> to the Greens, promising to cap donations at $30,000, ban organisations, and create a register for lobbyists. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Green Party has announced a plan to cap political donations, block companies from giving money to parties…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":608272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[111794,69543,42,111795,43,135,40,38,41,39,270122],"class_list":["post-608271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-chloe-swarbrick","tag-green-party","tag-headlines","tag-marama-davidson","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-vote-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/608272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}