She had called after I informed them that a major donor to their 2020 election campaign had subsequently pleaded guilty to animal neglect. So throughout my recent investigation into campaign finance for Newsroom, I couldn’t help wondering: why were these politicians being so careless? The answer gets at a wider truth about Aotearoa’s political system: politicians are under increasing pressure to raise money for their campaigns. To keep up with your rival parties, politicians redouble their fundraising efforts, which prompts a similar response from their opponents. Reflecting on all this, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that our campaign finance laws are fundamentally broken.

Source: The Guardian June 12, 2021 19:52 UTC