The Front Page podcast: How can we protect our elections from foreign interference?

Todd McClay, left, and Lang Lin, right, at their July 2016 meeting in Beijing on the sideline of the G20 trade ministers' meetings.

Each week The Front Page takes you behind the scenes of the biggest story from the New Zealand Herald and Newstalk ZB. Today it's the troubling details of foreign political donations. Hosted by Frances Cook.

Serious questions are being raised about political donations and whether they're leaving us open to foreign interference.

A Herald investigation has found former Trade Minister Todd McClay helped arrange a $150,000 donation from Chinese racing industry billionaire Lin Lang, begging the question of what was expected in return.

The donation was made through a New Zealand-registered company after chairman and owner Lin Lang met then Trade Minister Todd McClay in Beijing and Rotorua.

The revelations a Minister was involved in facilitating National's largest donation of the most recent electoral cycle - with the cash coming from a foreign-owned business - comes as Parliament mulls how to counter foreign interference in New Zealand's political system.

The Justice Select Committee is currently deliberating on reforming the country's electoral finance laws, having heard from NZSIS director Rebecca Kitteridge in a rare briefing, saying foreign donations are a vector of concern.

For the latest Front Page podcast I talked to the journalist who uncovered the story, investigative journalist Matt Nippert.

We discussed why the donation raised eyebrows, what the SIS are concerned about, and if change to our donations system is likely.

For the interview, watch the video podcast.

If you have questions about Herald investigations, or want to stay up to date on social media, you can find host Frances Cook on Facebook here, Instagram here and Twitter here.

You can subscribe to this podcast on the podcast apps, including iHeartRadio here, Apple podcasts here, Spotify here, and Google podcasts here.