Democracy Project NZ, Summarised by Centrist
The latest attempt at electoral reform is the Labour Government’s “Independent Electoral Review”, which has put forward some radical proposals to clamp down on donations from the wealthy.
The problem is these reform proposals threaten to inadvertently make the problems of money in politics much worse, giving even more power to those who can afford to fund politics.
These radical proposals might be well received by many opponents of big money in politics.
Clamping down on political party fundraising will likely result in the rise of US style interest groups. These groups become the target of wealth donors and have a myriad of ways to get around limits on expenditure.
A further loophole that leaves campaigning against parties (Don’t vote Labour) are likely to result in wealthy donations funnelled almost entirely into interest groups that campaign negatively trying to dissuade voters from choosing a particular party.
