New questions are being raised about the electoral return of Tāmaki Makarau MP Takutai Tarsh Kemp.
The Electoral Commission has confirmed it is reviewing the MP’s campaign donation and expense declarations following a Q+A story about a van registered to Manurewa Marae that Kemp used at last year's election.
The MP's electoral return contains no reference to the marae or the use of its van.
Electoral law expert professor Andrew Geddis said the issue created possible risks around the Charities Act and the Electoral Act.
"The problem is because her return is so sparse with the details, it’s very difficult to know whether the rules have been followed here," Geddis said.
Te Pāti Māori MP Takutai Kemp appeared with the van in a Q+A story just before the election. (Source: 1News)
Registered political parties must send the Electoral Commission an annual return of donations and loans they receive.
The van was wrapped in the candidate's branding and featured prominently in Kemp's marketing campaign as a mobile billboard.
Since Manurewa Marae is a registered charity, it is barred from supporting political parties or candidates, making political donations, and has restrictions on letting candidates use its resources.
Geddes said potential clarification was needed if the van was given to Kemp for free - making it a donation, which would need to be declared in her electoral return.
Any gifts or donations over $1500 must be recorded. Renting a similar van for the full election campaign period would have cost just under $6000.
Kemp listed $48,512.94 in donations but Manurewa Marae is not mentioned. The use of the van for advertising purposes has also not been mentioned in the return.
Geddis said: “If the marae has given her the use of the van for free, then that is a donation to her candidacy.
"And given that she had the van for comparatively quite some time, had her face and her party branding on the van, and used the van for quite a number of campaign activities, the question is whether the value of that gift from the marae is over $1500."
It was possible that if the vehicle was rented from the marae at full commercial value, it wouldn’t need to be recorded as a donation. Instead, it should be recorded as a campaign expense, Geddes said.
Under the Electoral Act, candidates need to record who electoral expenses were paid to.
Kemp listed $5974.25 as an expense cost for “vehicle signage and van signage.” But there’s nothing in the return that explicitly accounts for the actual use of the marae’s van, said Geddes.
“Part of the problem here is that because the return doesn’t have the necessary details, these questions remain unanswered at the moment.”
On Q+A last week, Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was asked how confident she was that all of her party's candidates declared all donations and campaign expenses as required by the Electoral Act at last year’s election.
“We’re the only party that I know of that over-disclosed about ourselves.”
Kemp declined to be interviewed.
Charities Services, which is part of Internal Affairs, is continuing to investigate.
The Electoral Commission confirmed to Q+A that it is also looking into the matter.
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air
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