{"id":17500,"date":"2026-05-26T05:37:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T17:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=17500"},"modified":"2026-05-26T05:37:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T17:37:28","slug":"1m-in-political-donations-from-entities-linked-to-fast-track-applications-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=17500","title":{"rendered":"$1m in political donations from entities linked to fast track applications revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than $1 million in political donations linked to fast-tracked projects have been made since 2022.<\/p>\n

An RNZ analysis of the latest donation data reveals $400,000 was donated to National and NZ First in 2025 from people or entities linked to fast-track projects. Labour received $8620.<\/p>\n

The introduction of the fast-track approvals process was part of NZ First’s coalition deal with National. Since 2022 almost 90 percent of donations from people or entities also linked to projects have gone to the two parties.<\/p>\n

\n
Made with Flourish\u00a0\u2022\u00a0Create your own<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Since the act came into effect in 2024, a total of 23 fast-track projects have been approved. Of these, seven are linked to people or organisations that have made a political donation.<\/p>\n

Of the remaining projects where RNZ identified links to donations, one project has been declined and another withdrawn. A number of others are under consideration for fast track approval, or are still developing detailed applications to be considered by expert panels.<\/p>\n

The largest linked donation from a fast-track applicant made last year was $100,000 from Sir Rod Drury to the National Party. Drury, a tech entrepreneur who has recently\u00a0denied allegations of misconduct and inappropriate behaviour<\/a>\u00a0is linked to the Coronet Village project, which is yet to make a substantive application.<\/p>\n

The Carter Group donated just over $80,000, also to National. One of its three projects has been approved. It is yet to lodge full applications for two other projects.<\/p>\n

Eighteen other donations made in 2025 from people or companies associated with fast track applications ranged from $38,000 to just over $5000.<\/p>\n

rnz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than $1 million in political donations linked to fast-tracked projects have been made since 2022. An RNZ analysis of the latest donation data reveals $400,000 was donated to National and NZ First in 2025 from people or entities linked to fast-track projects. Labour received $8620. The introduction of the fast-track approvals process was part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":17501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17500"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17502,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17500\/revisions\/17502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}