Stuff publishes complete list of NZ First donors.

That requires two separate steps to achieve political power. Firstly you need a widespread campaign of intimidation of donors, this will undoubtedly have counterproductive effect as people react. Secondly you need the authorities to be complicit or complacent enough to ignore this clearly illegal behaviour.

Public centralized funding in comparison you achieve power far more reliably and easily by controlling the criteria and/or assignment of funds. It's a small group of elite public servants, much easier to capture and control subtly without public awareness than a widespread donor intimidation campaign. Perfectly legal too, whereas intimidation of donors is going to be criminal offense.

/r/newzealand Thread Parent Link - stuff.co.nz