Brownlee GerryHon GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam): So a question for the Minister: if the Government parties are not concerned enough to put Dr Smith's tabled amendment into the legislation bringing the scrutiny on foundations and other organisations that offer financial support to parties in New Zealand does that mean that the Green Party for example may now set up their own foundation and receive donations of an anonymous type into that foundation—as we know they are able to call on this international network of people who are prepared to support their style of politics—and have absolutely no scrutiny over that money whatsoever? Is that what this means?Is it a fact then that the Government accepts the arrangement that New Zealand First has: that a donation into their foundation is not a donation to a political party and therefore does not have to be declared? Is it their position also that if a donation is made directly to the political party—in the case of New Zealand First $340000 with the other $500000 going into the foundation—that also does not need to be declared? These might be matters for the Electoral Commission but we're here altering the Electoral Act that that commission works on. So it seems to me that when we are right in the thick of the controversy over the missing $840000 from New Zealand First there is no mention of how that should be accounted for in the future.In the National Party we've run a foundation for quite a few years. We make no secret of that but every donation that's made to that foundation is declared because it's absolutely clear that the donation is being made for political purposes. So if we are now going to have a situation where if an overseas donor—Clayton Mitchell: Show us.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: —makes an anonymous donation of—Clayton Mitchell: Open up your books.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: There we go—that's fantastic. The bagman from New Zealand First has just said Show us the books." I'll tell you what fella go down to the Electoral Commission. Look at the return and you will be able to see the books. But if we want to see New Zealand First's books oh no they're under Winston's mattress somewhere tucked away where no one can see them—a long list of foreign donors from all sorts of Eastern European countries and others putting into the coffers of New Zealand First and secretly made available to the party for all sorts of activity. Come on. The pot has got to stop calling the kettle black. That is unbelievable.So let's get back to the bill. Does this bill mean that anonymous donations in excess of $50 made on a website perhaps to some kind of foundation that supports the Green Party for example or green politics some kind of—what are they called in the United States?—political action group gets set up. They've got no particular affiliation but they might make donations for various political activities and they would be prepared to declare themselves. No question about that—that's no problem. But their stream of funding could remain anonymous. Their stream of funding could remain totally anonymous because there would be no requirement in the New Zealand law for that political action group or political foundation or trust or whatever structure you might want to have to declare where their money came from.So it seems very very odd that we're here looking at a problem that could be worth only about $5000 on an annual basis—anonymous donations to political parties—but in fact we are ignoring the fact that there is a massive loophole here available and used so far by New Zealand First and available to others inappropriately to avoid scrutiny of where the money comes from. A simple question to the Minister is: why? Why is it not in there? What's the problem? Why is it so hard to insist that a political action group set up to receive funds for political purposes does not have to declare their anonymous donations?"