Independent MP Jami-Lee Ross, the former National MP for Botany, arrives at the Auckland District Court to face fraud charges. (FIRST PUBLISHED IN FEBRUARY 2020)

OPINION: Imagine you were caught - or suspected of - breaking the law at work.

Chances are you'd be stood down. There'd be an investigation and you wouldn't be allowed to return until it was all cleared up.

Not so if you are a politician. Jami-Lee Ross, Lianne Dalziel, Phil Goff and Winston Peters' NZ First - all currently under investigation over political donations.

All still in office. Working - and getting paid for it.

READ MORE:

* Billionaires among the full list of donors supporting NZ First

* National calls for NZ First budget decisions to be probed following donor revelation

* Winston Peters stands by party in face of Serious Fraud Office referral

* Former National MP Jami-Lee Ross and businessmen deny fraud charges

* Expenses complaint about Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel referred to Serious Fraud Office

IAIN MCGREGOR/STUFF Large and undisclosed donations to a NZ First slush fund are now being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office

There's next to no accountability - and even less desire to shake up the murky world of campaign fundraising. Turkeys don't vote for Christmas.

So, yet again we find ourselves heading into another general election with electoral finance laws full of loopholes.

Almost all of the mainstream parties are stained. NZ First appears to be running a slush fund, funnelling secret donations from the racing and fishing industry.

Peters continues to insist no rules have been broken and has dealt with questions with predictable chutzpah. Shane Jones' announcement last week of investment close to $100m that will directly benefit the fishing industry was certainly a bold two-fingered gesture to critics.

CHRISTCHURCH CITY COUNCIL/SUPPLIED Christchurch Mayor Lianne Dalziel is facing an SFO investigation into election expenses.

Labour's Jacinda Ardern has refused to take action over her under-fire deputy PM. That party's hands aren't clean either: it has received tens of thousands of dollars by auctioning art at over-inflated prices, but naming the artist, not the buyer, as the donor.

National - savagely critical of NZ First - has its own problems. Jami-Lee Ross might be the one in the dock over a foreign donations scandal, but the court case has raised some uncomfortable questions, particularly over a second $100,000 gift.

And these are only the current skeletons. As long as there are secret donations and opaque rules, there will be fundraising scandals.

Politicians write the rules they so blatantly flout. The parties manage their own accounts and the cash that flows into them.

Now it's pretty obvious they can't be trusted, it's time to take away that power and ban them from accepting donations directly.

WARWICK SMITH/STUFF Is it time to change the laws to keep politicians in the dark over electoral donations?

The only way to transparency is for an independent body to handle and process the donations, which would not be disclosed publicly or to the party.

That way the donor maintains their anonymity and privacy - and the law-makers cannot be in anyone's pocket.

The perception of influence and corruption would also be removed.

There's no appetite for the taxpayer to further fund political finance: elections are already expensive.

But existing laws are being bent and flouted. Four out of five donations to the big parties are secret.

MPs have written the rules to keep the public blind - it's time we took oversight of campaign cash out of their hands.