Nats pursue leak detail from Govt

The National Party is calling on the Speaker and the Prime Minister’s office to reveal what information they’ve shared between them over the leak of Simon Bridges’ expenses.

Shadow Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee said the timing of events on Friday, when Speaker Trevor Mallard pulled the pin on an independent inquiry, just days after he set it up, looked ‘‘untidy’’.

However, any suggestion there could have been some level of coordination between the Speaker and Prime Minister’s office would be serious.

But Brownlee said ‘‘they very clearly know something’’.

Last week, it was revealed the leaker had sent anonymous texts to both Bridges and Mallard, imploring the inquiry be abandoned due to concerns they had over their mental health.

Bridges engaged both mental health experts and the police in dealing with the approach, and police took just a few days to identify the person and provide mental health support. However, they were not revealing the identity of the person due to privacy issues, and police were not involved in the political inquiry.

At around the same time Bridges was talking to media, saying it was important the inquiry continued because the right support now needed to be given to that person, the Prime Minister was also telling media it now seemed to be an internal matter for the National Party.

A few hours later, Mallard ended the investigation, pointing to the same conclusion.

Brownlee said it appeared the Prime Minister’s office had information on the text but for Mallard, nothing had changed since he received the text a week earlier.

‘‘The way Trevor announced it on Friday, sometime after the Prime Minister had made a declaration it was our problem, doesn’t look tidy – it looks very untidy.

‘‘And the next point would be that if they know something that we don’t, then they should tell us,’’ he said.

‘‘Because there is absolutely no change in the circumstances between Thursday when he appointed the QC and Friday when he decided to pull the pin on the thing.

‘‘I think we know that there are protocols between the police and Parliamentary Service. And of course you’ve also got the [Police Diplomatic Protection Service] DPS.

‘‘If there has been some passing of information between the Prime Minister and the Speaker, albeit on a restricted basis, I think they have an obligation to tell us what they know.’’