Opportunity Party urges lobbying and donations reforms

<p>The Opportunity Party is vowing to "clean up politics" by regulating lobbying and reforming political donations.</p> <p>It would look to cap political donations and establish an independent anti-corruption body to centralise and coordinate action against corruption.</p> <p>Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong made the policy announcement in Auckland on Sunday, saying New Zealand had spent decades building one of the cleanest democracies in the world - "but now the warning lights are flashing".</p> <p>"Our transparency ranking is falling, and the Serious Fraud Office has warned of increased corruption risks," she said.</p> <p>The underlying principle of the policy was simple, she said.</p> <p>"New Zealanders should be confident that political decisions are made in their interests, not because somebody has the biggest cheque book or the best access to a minister.</p> <p>"People vote. Lobby groups don't. Our democracy should reflect that," Wong said.</p> <p>In order to regulate lobbying, the party would introduce a Political Influence and Lobbying Bill that would create a one-year cooling-off period, "closing the revolving door" between ministers, senior staff and officials, and lobbying roles.</p> <p>It would also create a mandatory, public and searchable lobbying register, with quarterly disclosure of who lobbied which office-holders, as well as a statutory code of conduct for lobbyists and foreign lobbying safeguards.</p> <p>To reform political donations, the party said it would "sever the link between donations and influence, and make politics a competition of ideas, not fundraising".</p> <p>The party's proposal would introduce a $30,000 cap per donor per party per electoral cycle, limit donations to registered voters, lower the public disclosure threshold to $1000 and apply advertising spending limits across the full three-year electoral cycle for parties and candidates.</p> <p>The party would also establish an anti-corruption body with "investigative, prevention, and education functions, integrating and co-ordinating existing anti-corruption responsibilities".</p> <p>It would cover all public officials, including ministers, MPs, parliamentary staff, the public service, Crown entities, SOEs, local government, and contractors performing public functions.</p> <p>Alongside that body, the party would upgrade the day-to-day integrity rules through Official Information Act reform, stronger pecuniary interest rules, better whistleblower protections, and an independent policy costing unit available to all registered parties.</p> <p><b></b><a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/1010243/opportunity-party-vows-to-clean-up-politics-with-lobbying-and-donations-reforms" target="_blank"><b>rnz.co.nz</b></a><b></b></p>