The Government will ban foreign donations of more than $50 in a single day, Justice Minister Andrew Little has announced.

The law change will also put a greater onus on party secretaries to make sure that donations routed through a company or trust do not come from a foreign source.

"There's no need for anyone other than New Zealanders to donate to our political parties or seek to influence our elections," Little said.

"The risk of foreign interference in elections is a growing international phenomenon and can take many forms, including donations. New Zealand is not immune from this risk," he said.

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Little will introduce legislation on Tuesday and pass it under urgency either on Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning.

Little said it was key for the bill to pass rapidly as he wanted it in place ahead of the 2020 election year, and the Justice select committee had come to a stalemate on the matter.

National will support the bill but are "appalled" at the process being used to pass it in a single day.

The law will have a threshold of $50 for foreign donations to ensure that small-scale fundraising like bucket donations are not affected.

Currently, foreign donations over $1500 are forbidden.

The law change comes after intense lobbying from the Green Party for tighter foreign interference laws. The ban is part of Green Justice spokesperson Golriz Ghahraman's Strengthening Democracy Members' Bill.

"Limiting foreign donations to $50 will reduce undue influence from powerful vested interests and create a healthier and fairer system," she said.

Today she called for more to be done.

"We would like to see a raft of further measures to ensure equal access to our democracy. This includes implementing the 2012 MMP Review recommendations, reducing the anonymity threshold for all donations, and allowing Māori to change roll type at any time," she said.

Kevin Stent/Stuff Justice Minister Andrew Little

The bill does not change the rules that allow foreign donations to political parties if they are made through New Zealand companies.

This was in the news this year after the National Party received a $150,000 donation from a company owned by Lang Lin, a Chinese racing billionaire in 2017, which skirted foreign donation rules as it was made through a New Zealand company.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at the time the donation was "outside the spirit of the law".

Today's bill also introduces other changes.

Party secretaries and candidates will now have to take "reasonable steps" to ensure that a donation, or a contribution to a donation over the $50 foreign donation threshold, is not from an overseas person.

How this will work is not yet clear. The Electoral Commission will issue guidance on what these "reasonable steps" will look like.

Party secretaries will now have to reside in New Zealand to make it easier to enforce compliance with the rules.

National electoral reform spokesman Nick Smith said he was appalled at the Government's lack of process.

Smith has indicated a willingness to look at changing foreign donation rules but said electoral policy should always be passed in consultation with the opposition.

"The government is panicking in respect of both the polls and the scandal around the NZ First foundation, and is trying to create a distraction," Smith said.

"We're only likely to make errors in rushing legislation through in this extraordinarily panicked way," he said.

A National Party spokesperson said the party would support a shortened select committee process.

Former National MP Jami-Lee Ross, who left the party in a firestorm of accusations over foreign donations, said the "ban" did not go anywhere near far enough, as companies owned by foreigners could still donate.

"The government have made a very minor change in the right direction," Ross said.

It's a nice headline but it doesn't do anything to effectively ban foreign donations."