'Not come as a surprise': National MP referred to police over donations returns (2024)

The Electoral Commission has referred National’s New Plymouth MP, David MacLeod, to police over a failure to report $178,394 of candidate donations.

Last month, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon stood MacLeod down from his select committee roles after the National Party discovered his candidate donations’ return had not included about $178,000 worth of donations.

MacLeod had filed an amended return with the Electoral Commission. In a statement on Friday, the commission said it has now referred the issue to police.

Speaking to the NZ Herald on Friday, MacLeod said he was not surprised the matter had been referred to police. He said it was the result of a “genuine mistake” rather than an attempt to mislead.

“It’s not come as a surprise that this has been referred to police because of the material nature of what was missing on my return, and what I would assume is the considerable public interest.

“There has never been any intention on my behalf to hide any of those donations. It was a genuine mistake and a genuine misunderstanding of what I was required to disclose in that return. It’s my own mistake and I’m owning that. And I’m weathering that at the moment.”

It is an offence under electoral laws to file a late return or a return that is false.

If convicted, the penalty is a maximum of two years in prison or a maximum fine of $100,000 if it is found to be a “corrupt practice” and the candidate knew it was false. If the candidate can prove there was no intention to misstate the facts and they took all reasonable steps to ensure it was accurate it could be an “illegal practice” which carries a lower penalty of a fine of up to $40,000.

At the time it was revealed, MacLeod said it was a mistake and he had believed the donations had already been disclosed because most were received in the 2022 year rather than 2023. One $10,000 donation was also missed from the 2023 year.

However, candidate returns are only required after each election and must include all donations they received for their campaigns, regardless of the date.

The commission said it would not comment further. It said MacLeod’s original candidate return for the 2023 general election was filed on February 13 this year. The donations disclosed totalled $29,268 from seven separate donors.

Last month, on May 20, the commission received an amended return from MacLeod, which listed total donations of $207,662 from 24 separate donors.

The error was picked up by the National Party last week as part of the party’s annual consolidation of accounts.

MacLeod immediately conducted an audit of his 2022 and 2023 expenses and donations.

When it was revealed last month, Luxon said MacLeod had failed “to meet the high standards we expect of our MPs”.

“We are taking the matter very seriously. It is imperative that all National Party MPs comply with the law and meet our high expectations,” Luxon said.

The Prime Minister told media that candidate donations are the responsibility of candidates themselves and MacLeod had “stuffed it up”.

“He stuffed it up big time. He’s disappointed in himself and I’m disappointed in him.”

Te Pāti Māori had called for police to investigate.

Luxon said removing MacLeod from committees was justified and a consequence of his errors.

He had said MacLeod would now be putting his head down and getting to work with a lot of constituency work to do to prove himself to the National Party.

Luxon said he was not aware of any other donation discrepancies within the National Party.

“I want to make sure my MPs comply with the law.”

Finance Minister and National deputy leader Nicola Willis said the situation was disappointing and MacLeod had “dropped the ball”.

”I know David MacLeod’s disappointed in himself.

”It’s a process I take very seriously, I do always sit down and take a deep breath . . . when I check that form because I know the consequences of getting it wrong are serious.”

Claire Trevett is the NZ Herald’s political editor, based at Parliament in Wellington. She started at the Herald in 2003 and joined the Press Gallery team in 2007. She is a life member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery.