If Premier Mike Baird is serious about political donations reform, he needs to do one thing: pick up the phone to Prime Minister Tony Abbott and demand he commit to national election funding laws.

If Abbott wants to retain a shred of credibility in relation to his claim there is a "pretty clean polity" in Canberra – uttered in defence of his rejection of the need for a national anti-corruption body – he must agree without delay.

A July 2010 email produced at the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Wednesday reveals why: it indicates the Liberal Party, at both a federal and state level, has been treating the current regulatory regime with utter contempt.

In the email, NSW Liberal finance director Simon McInnes asks his federal colleague Colin Gracie if the national office would "process" a gift from a donor designated for the federal seat of Banks "and return the funds so it can be used in a local campaign".

McInnes alludes to the fact that by donating to the federal party the donor would avoid having the fact "disclosed in detail" on public records.