Source: Radio New Zealand
Political donations made in an election year must be declared within 20 days if they are more than $20,000. RNZ
Technology entrepreneur Brian Cartmell appears to have donated at least half a million dollars to the coalition parties – and to the Opportunity party.
Cartmell moved to New Zealand in 2010 and gave up his US citizenship in 2015. His former professional background includes working for the Internet Entertainment Group, an online pornography company. It was a pioneer in live webcam shows and subscription services.
In a statement on his website, Cartmell said he had donated equally to the three coalition parties as well as to Opportunity. The ACT Party told RNZ it had received a total of $200,000 from Cartmell last year. The Electoral Commission said a $100,000 donation to Opportunity from Cartmell had been disclosed. Neither National nor NZ First would confirm donations from him.
But Cartmell himself said the current coalition parties represent “the best available chance of navigating” a period of significant economic, technological, and geopolitical change in a way that preserves New Zealand’s sovereignty, prosperity and independence.
He said he chose to donate equal amounts to National, Act and NZ First last year as none of the three represents his thinking, but he believed the three parties complemented each other. The donation to Opportunity was made because he feels healthy democracies need parties willing to put forward ideas major parties won’t.
“New ideas enter the political process from the edges, and parties like Opportunity play an important role in making sure that process doesn’t stagnate.”
Who is Brian Cartmell?
Cartmell lives in Queenstown with his partner. He says he has donated more than $1 million to a range of organisations including Starship Children’s Hospital, Cure Kids, Hato Hone St John and NZSAS Regiment Trust.
In the 1990s, he worked at Internet Entertainment Group helping it to develop live streaming technology.
Cartmell also founded a domain registry firm in 1997 which managed domain names with the .cc extension, associated with the Cocos Islands territory, an island territory with a population of around 600 people. He told the United States Senate Commerce Committee 400,000 domain names were registered to the extension. The Australian Financial Review reported the islands received no benefits from domain name sales, although Cartmell did distribute technology and grants. Cartmell sold the company to Verisign in 2001 for an undisclosed sum.
Cartmell also funded an anti-spam service called SpamAlert. This company won a court case against the food company Hormel, maker of tinned Spam, over the use of the word spam. He was also an early adopter of cryptocurrency Bitcoin and participated in the first funding round of Coinbase.
The Companies Register shows he is a director of three New Zealand companies and a shareholder in an additional 12 companies. These include crowdsourcing platform PledgeMe, food and beverage companies Angel Food and Yeastie Boys. He has a small shareholding in Invisible Urban Charging, an electric car charging company co-founded by former National Party MP Jake Bezzant.
According to Cartmell’s website he is seeking investment opportunities and is looking for innovative start-ups in transformative technologies.
Parties respond
Opportunity party general manager Iain Lees-Galloway said the cash injection, which was declared as being received on 25 February was incredibly helpful for the small party, which is not in parliament.
“We don’t have parliamentary resources to run our campaigns that sitting MPs do. So a donation like this makes a huge difference to us to be able to get our message out.”
Donations would be spent on marketing as well as travel and events. The party has received one other big donation of $50,000 from Phillip Mills, taking its currently declared total for 2026 to $150,000.
Donations made in the 2025 calendar year will be published in early May. Donations made in an election year must be declared within 20 days if they are more than $20,000.
An ACT party spokesperson confirmed Cartmell had made donations in 2025 but had not made any donations this year.
“ACT New Zealand received a donation from Brian Cartmell of $100k in December last year. He donated a total of $200k to ACT in 2025.”
New Zealand First party secretary Holly Howard said donations would be disclosed as required by law.
“Out of respect for our donors’ privacy and due process, we will not provide commentary or confirmation on individual donations ahead of the statutory reporting requirements.”
The National Party said it wouldn’t comment on individual donations, except where required by law through donation disclosures.
Information released on the electoral commission website shows coalition parties have received $750,000 in donations of over $20,000 so far this year. National has received $250,000, ACT $350,000 and NZ First $150,000.
The Greens have received $43,000 and Labour $22,000.
Cartmell’s statement says he supports transparent political donations, but will be making no further statements on the matter.
“These donations were made with that broader objective in mind – with the understanding that it is voters, not donors, who decide the direction of New Zealand.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
