Auckland (The NZ Today)
ACT has moved ahead of National in declared large political donations for the 2026 election year after receiving another $225,000, taking its total to $2,347,036.
The latest Electoral Commission disclosures include $100,000 from Rank Group, $50,000 from Van Den Brink Karaka Ltd, $50,000 from investor Troy Bowker and $25,000 from Nick Mowbray.
The new declarations come as the overall value of political donations above $20,000 reported during 2026 has climbed to $7,159,742, according to RNZ’s analysis of Electoral Commission data.
That total has already moved beyond the amount recorded for large donations during the 2023 election campaign.
ACT currently leads the table on $2,347,036, followed by National on $2,190,955.
Labour has received $869,896, while New Zealand First has declared $753,000.
The Opportunity Party has received $491,660, the Green Party $343,195, Te Pāti Māori $114,000, and the Te Tai Tokerau Party $50,000.
When National, ACT and New Zealand First are combined, the three governing coalition parties have received about $5.29 million in large donations so far this year — around 74 percent of the total.
The other parties combined have received about $1.87 million.
Under election-year rules, political parties must notify the Electoral Commission when they receive more than $20,000 from a single donor between January 1 and the day before election day.
Several major donors have spread their contributions across more than one party.
Rank Group, owned by Graeme Hart, has donated heavily to both National and ACT this year, while Troy Bowker has contributed to ACT and New Zealand First.
Nick Mowbray has also divided his 2026 political donations between ACT and National.
An amended New Zealand First return has meanwhile increased the amount attributed to technology entrepreneur Brian Cartmell, who has donated across NZ First, ACT and the Opportunity Party.
Businesses, trusts, unions and individual donors can all contribute to political parties, provided disclosure and electoral finance rules are followed.
The latest figures only cover donations that meet the immediate reporting threshold. Smaller contributions are dealt with through separate annual disclosure requirements, meaning the published large-donation totals do not represent every dollar raised by political parties.
Source: Electoral Commission data; additional analysis by RNZ.
