Bruce Plested, the founder of Mainfreight, has donated a further $150,000 to the Māori Party, just months after bashing the National government on inaction in housing and education.

The election drag race is going down to the line – and now, the millionaires are stepping up to fuel it.

Two well-known names are investing in the results they want: hotelier Lani Hagaman is backing the governing National Party; Mainfreight founder Bruce Plested is, it seems, trying to take them down.

A fortnight out from the election, and the total of disclosed donations in the past month has topped $1 million.

MICHAEL BRADLEY/STUFF Long-time National supporters and hotellier rich-listers the late Earl and his widow Lani Hagaman donated $57,615 to the party this year.

Those are just the sums over $30,000 that parties are legally required to reveal; on past trends, there will be another $4 million in undisclosed donations. Four out of every five dollars donated to big parties is done so in secret.

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CHRIS GORMAN/STUFF Peter Huljich and his family donated $55,000 to National through their company, HWM Holdings.

Stuff is campaigning for greater transparency in political funding and for the identity of all donors be promptly disclosed to the Electoral Commission.

Some of the country's wealthiest families are pouring money into National's coffers. The Huljich family, worth $215m, gave $55,000 last month through their family company.

And Lani Hagaman, who with her late husband Earl Hagaman was estimated to be worth $190m, donated $57,615 – that was disclosed just this week.

DAVID HALLETT/STUFF More than a million dollars has been recorded in party returns over $30,000 since August 1, largely by big-name rich listers.

The Hagamans had been suing former Labour leader Andrew Little for defamation over allegations he made about their Niue hotel contract. Little was cleared in court in April; Earl Hagaman died the following month, aged 91.

Other big displays of support came from Auckland-based Alpha Laboratories who donated $112,000 to National, and Inner Mongolia Rider Horse Industry who donated $150,000.

Labour is being backed by their usual allies, with the Dairy Workers Union and E Tu Union donating $100,000 and $120,000 respectively in the past months.

STUFF Māori Party president Tuku Morgan offered an olive branch to the Labour Party to work with them "for our people's sake".

But most extraordinary of all is the man bankrolling the Māori Party. Rich-Lister Bruce Plested, who boasts a $400 million fortune, has donated $360,000 since 2014. He is responsible for all $150,000 of the donations disclosed by the Maori Party this year.

Plested and the Maori Party may seem unlikely bedfellows. After all, he has been an outspoken critic of the government; Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell is a minister in the government.

But Plested's renewed backing is seen as providing backing for the Maori Party to team up with Labour in a new government after the election. His latest donation of $50,000 came after Māori Party president Tokoroirangi Morgan endorsed the new leadership of the Labour Party. The day Jacinda Ardern took the leadership, Morgan said: "Māori people throughout the country are telling me they want our party to work with Labour if it's in a position to form a Government after September 23."

HAGEN HOPKINS/GETTY IMAGES First, hotelier Lani Hagaman and her late husband took on the Labour Party by suing Andrew Little through the courts. Now she has taken the more straightforward approach of donating to the National Party.

The Mainfreight chairman made the $50,000 donation under the name of Rorohara Farms, his boutique wedding and events venue on Waiheke. He'd already made another two $50,000 donations this year under his own name.

Once a National supporter, donating $35,000 to the Nats in March 2014, Plested made headlines earlier this year castigating the government in Mainfreight's annual report. In an open letter to his 6000 employees Plested offered a searing social commentary on housing inaffordability, chronic underachievement by students in poor areas and the abusive relationship between big business and the environment.

He finished the report with a meditation on greed quoting an unnamed European billionaire, who when asked by a reporter about his money-making goals professed a desire for "just a wee bit more".

"Just a few more cows per acre, just a wee bit more water for irrigation, just another water bore in case it doesn't rain, just a wee bit more sewerage [sic] mixed with a wee bit more storm water, just a few more years raping our already depleted fish stocks," Plested wrote.

His support of the Māori Party traces back to 2014, when he made two donations totalling $210,000.

Tuku Morgan said Plested had no expectations the party would advance his business interests, rather, he was a "wonderful man, and champion for the poor".

"He shares our aspirations for strong families, job creation, affordable housing and environmental protection," Morgan said.

"Bruce is an example of a New Zealander who believes in a united New Zealand, who believes that Māori succeeding would be good for our country."

POLITICAL DONATIONS DISCLOSED OVER $30,000 RECEIVED IN 2017

The Opportunities Party: $1.4m from Gareth Morgan

National Party: $670,000 from Huljich family, Lani Hagaman, Barry Colman and others

Labour Party: $569,000 from Dairy Workers Union, artist Karl Maughan and others

ACT Party: $286,000 from Christopher Reeve, Murray Chandler, Alan Gibbs and others

Māori Party: $150,000 from Bruce Plested