Donations case bares rift within National

A stoush between former National Party MPs Jami-Lee Ross and Simon Bridges has been rehashed in court this week as both were called to give evidence in a political donations trial.

Ross and three businessmen – Yikun Zhang, Shijia (Colin) Zheng and Hengjia (Joe) Zheng – have been charged by the Serious Fraud Office over donations made to National.

The three are also facing charges – alongside two men and a woman, who all have interim name suppression – over donations made to the Labour Party. All six are on trial in the High Court at Auckland.

The Crown’s case is that sham donors were used and put forward by men on the inside of both parties to disguise the true donor: Zhang.

Here’s what happened this week and what’s next.

Why it matters

The trial this week has given insight into the turbulence within National leading up to Ross’ infamous 2018 press conference, where he accused Bridges of being corrupt.

During that conference, he said Bridges had filed unlawful electoral returns in relation to a $100,000 donation from Zhang. He accused Bridges of asking him to mask the identity of the donor by splitting the donation up into smaller amounts.

Text messages read to the jury this week showed Ross felt betrayed by Bridges over a demotion.

The messages, as well as recordings played to the court, also showed Bridges’ frustration with Ross. He said there was evidence Ross had behaved inappropriately with multiple women.

Bridges and Ross also discussed a $100,000 donation from Zhang at length, with Ross saying Bridges had not declared it properly and Bridges saying he had done nothing illegal.

Key players

Ross resigned from National following the 2018 press conference and stood as an independent, but lost his seat. In 2020, he launched a new party, Advance New Zealand, which later merged with the New Zealand Public Party, run by conspiracy theorist Billy Te Kahika Jr. They received less than 1% of the vote at the October 2020 election.

Bridges retired from politics in May 2020 and is now the chief executive of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and hosts a podcast, Generally Famous, for Stuff.

What’s been said

Ross told a detective he recorded himself and Bridges discussing the $100,000 donation because ‘‘if s... hit the fan it would have all landed on me ... I recorded it because I could smell political danger’’.

What’s next

The trial, before Justice Ian Gault, is expected to last several more weeks.