National's President Peter Goodfellow addresses threats from Jami-Lee Ross to release leaked donor info

National Party leader Judith Collins and deputy leader Gerry Brownlee with party president Peter Goodfellow, right. Photo / Mark Mitchell

National's president is playing down threats by ex-National MP Jami-Lee Ross to make public the party's 2017 donation records in the House tomorrow.

But Peter Goodfellow could not say with 100 per cent certainty that National had not received donations linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as alleged by Ross.

He did say, however, National had done its due diligence and "that leads me to believe we don't have those connections".

On Sunday, the sitting Botany MP claimed to have been leaked National's 2017 donor list – he claimed the party is being partly funded by the Chinese Communist Party.

He said he planned to table evidence of this in Parliament before Parliament adjourns for the campaign period.

This is highly likely to fail, as it will undoubtedly be opposed by at least one of National's 54 MPs.

Tabling a document in Parliament makes it available to all MPs.

But, before a document is made public after it has been tabled, the House Clark needs to check that it's not defamatory.

Ross told the Herald that at this stage, he planned to table the documents during tomorrow's general debate in the House.

If that fails, he said he would be seeking legal advice before releasing the documents publicly.

Speaking to reporters before going into National's caucus meeting this morning, Goodfellow said he had not heard what Ross had said over the weekend in relation to the donations.

"I'm not aware of anything at the moment, nothing has been drawn to my attention," he said when asked about the alleged donations from CCP.

He said the party has records of "tens of thousands" of donations and he was not sure what Ross was referring to.

Asked again if any were linked to the CCP, he asked for further advice on specific donations.

He then added that: "We always check to see that we've got New Zealanders who have donated, and [if they are] all within the usual disclosure requirements – that's what we've been looking for".

He said if Ross did table the information in the House, "we would take a look at it ... very promptly, as we have in the past".

"I would feel very concerned ... we would take a look at the information if it got tabled.

"We have had a look at our information, but for some reason, he might believe something different, or whatever. Let's see what he's got."

Goodfellow said the party's leadership takes these matters very seriously.