New Zealand has benefited from a reputation for having low levels of corruption compared to other nations, but a new report warns the country is at risk of complacency.
The Helen Clark Foundation report called for major changes to rules around lobbying, political donations, and official information.
Report author Philippa Yasbek spoke to Q+A about her recommendations and what the country's political system needed to improve on.
"New Zealand, unfortunately, often has a 'she'll be right' attitude towards these things."
While the amount of money in New Zealand's political system was tiny compared to other countries, Yasbek said it continued to have a big impact on politicians.
"The donors themselves are now increasingly giving money when they want a very specific policy outcome," she told Q+A.
The report author said there was an effective "quid pro quo" happening in those cases.
She continued: "Historically, and there are some donors that still do this, they give money to political party because they broadly agree with their ideology.
"But we're now seeing donors saying, 'I donated to Party X, because I want this very specific thing to happen'... it creates the perception that policy is up for sale."
The researcher added: "We would like to see limits on the donation levels. We'd also like to see it restricted to registered electors – so you can't be a foreigner, set up a New Zealand company, and donate through that company."
Yasbek also spoke about the impacts of political lobbying in New Zealand.
"We have almost no laws regulating lobbying in New Zealand. The OECD has done a comparison of our lobbying situation with other countries – and I think only Luxembourg, Slovakia and Turkey have weaker controls than we do," she said.
"Everyone else we like to compare ourselves to has much, much tighter regulation of lobbying. We also see a lot of effects from that lobbying.
"There's this revolving door where ministers or their staff leave Parliament to go set up and start lobbying their former colleagues on behalf of private sector clients."
She added: "We should introduce laws to regulate it. A specific lobbying act.
"We should have a mandatory code of conduct for all lobbyists and, probably most importantly, we should have lobbyists recording their interactions with decision-makers, so that we know what's happening.
"We've also suggested tightening up on the revolving door – so restricting the ability of people to move from one job to another, where there is a conflict of interest and where they are taking all of their contacts and knowledge."
Watch the full interview in the video above
Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air
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