Electoral Commission head David Henry says New Zealand needs to do better in respect to the transparency of political donations.
At the last election, both the Labour and National parties spent more than $2 million, but they disclosed donations of just $422,000 and $130,000 respectively.
Mr Henry says voters should know the source of donations to political parties, but there is a lack of clarity in the rules about how to identify the original source of donations.
Mr Henry says if Parliament wants transparency, it will have to legislate for simple, certain and transparent rules.