Real Threat To Transparent Elections Comes From Shadowy Corporates, Not Unions

“The real threat to transparent, democratic elections comes from big business donors that hide behind anonymous donation rules, not unions who are upfront about their political activity,” CTU president Ross Wilson said.

“Unions take pride in the fact that we have achieved a significant political influence for working people and secured many tangible policy gains, including minimum wage increases for low paid workers and four weeks annual leave.”

“We think most New Zealanders would agree the greatest potential for undue influence comes from the election donations of big business and right-wing millionaires, and the political activity of unions pales into insignificance when compared to these.”

“Nevertheless, unions absolutely accept the need for union political party donations, and third party campaigning, to be considered as part of any reform. Controlling communications by union leaders with union members would be an unreasonable restraint however,” Ross Wilson said.

“The identity of all political donors and the amounts donated must be publicly available.  As member driven organisations, unions are upfront about our activity and this would be of no concern to us,” Ross Wilson said.