Declared donations tip $5.7m in 2026 election year as National pulls ahead
Declared political donations of $20,000 and above in the 2026 election year have reached $5.7 million, according to RNZ's political donations tracker, which draws on Electoral Commission data. The figure, current as of Monday 17 August, places National well clear of the field, with the party's declared donations up $634,000 in the most recent update alone. RNZ
Two $250,000 donations anchor National's position. Nicholas (Nick) Mowbray, co-founder of toy company Zuru, gave $250,000 to the National Party, with the Electoral Commission hosting a dated donation return form for the contribution on 12 February 2026. Electoral Commission Rank Group made a second $250,000 donation to National in the same cycle. Stuff had previously reported Mowbray's contribution to National, identifying him as a billionaire donor. Stuff
Labour sits in third place in declared donations, behind National and ACT. The party received $100,000 from Richard (Dick) Hubbard, a former Auckland mayor and founder of Hubbard Foods. A $60,000 donation from the Rail and Maritime Union also went to Labour, shifting the party ahead of NZ First in the declared donations tally.
The Electoral Commission's donations-exceeding-$20,000 page additionally records a donation to Labour from David Silverman on 10 August 2026. Electoral Commission
Union giving to Labour, while still present, is tracking below the 2023 baseline. In the 2023 election, unions gave $335,000 to Labour. National received no union donations in 2023 but drew more than $1 million from businesses that cycle. RNZ
The disclosure regime underpinning these figures is straightforward. Registered parties must notify the Electoral Commission within 20 working days when they receive a donation exceeding $20,000 from a single donor during the 2026 election year. The Commission makes those donations public. It also maintains a separate page listing donations exceeding $30,000. Electoral Commission The election-year donation return form must be used for every party donation received in an election year. Electoral Commission
Annual party donation returns for the year ending 31 December 2025 were due to the Electoral Commission on 30 April 2026, providing a separate, slower-cycle picture alongside the rolling election-year disclosures. Electoral Commission
For those working in Parliament and party organisations, the tracker is the closest thing to a real-time read on donor behaviour the regime allows. The 20-working-day lag is structural, not a feature of reporting delays; donors who gave in late July will not appear until mid-August at the earliest. The $5.7 million total will continue to move as returns are filed through the remainder of the election year.
What the current snapshot shows is a donor landscape that looks broadly continuous with 2023. National is drawing large individual and corporate gifts. Labour is drawing from a narrower base of individuals and affiliated unions, with union contributions running behind the last cycle. ACT's second-place position in declared donations, behind National but ahead of Labour, is consistent with the party's fundraising trajectory in recent cycles. The $634,000 increase in National's declared donations in the latest update alone is the kind of jump that typically accompanies a wave of return filings rather than a single donor event, though the Mowbray and Rank Group donations are the largest individual items visible in the current data.
