Abstract
There is considerable debate about how best to strengthen democracy so that private wealth does not have undue influence in public policymaking, thereby restoring the public’s trust in political decision-making. We surveyed political parties on their positions on lobbying laws, political donations and other pro-democracy policies.
The Opportunity Party (Opportunity) and the Green Party (Greens) had the strongest and most explicit policies to enact lobbying transparency laws, caps on party donations, and include other pro-democracy policies. Te Pāti Māori (TPM), Labour and NZ First (NZF) were also generally supportive but without having their own explicit policies. The National and ACT parties failed to respond to the questions and had no pro-democracy policies on their website.
If Opportunity or the Greens are part of the next Government, there appears to be some prospect for substantial implementation of policies to improve public policymaking, especially by reducing the lobbying power of private vested influences.