National to PM - release the text from Karel Sroubek supporter

Simon Bridges says the PM should have revealed the fact that she received a text about Karel Sroubek from supporter Richie Hardcore a long time ago. Photo / Mark Mitchell

National Party leader Simon Bridges is calling the Prime Minister "dishonest by omission" and demanding she release the text message she received from Richie Hardcore, a supporter of hers and a friend of controversial Czech drug-smuggler Karel Sroubek.

But Jacinda Ardern is declining to release the text on the basis of privacy, but she is prepared to have that tested under the Official Information Act.

Yesterday Ardern's office confirmed that Hardcore had sent her an unsolicited text commending Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway's initial decision to grant residency to Sroubek, who moved in similar kick-boxing circles to Hardcore.

Lees-Galloway has since reversed that decision and issued Sroubek a new deportation liability notice, which Sroubek is appealing.

National first asked about Hardcore during Question Time on November 7, and Bridges told media today that Ardern should have fronted up about the text a long time ago.

"She's had questions [on Sroubek] for nearly two months. She's given a completely false impression. She said she knew nothing about any of this. Now we learn there is a text where she did know something ... by omission it's been very dishonest."

But he stopped short of calling her a liar.

"Either she knew or knows much more about Sroubek than she is saying, or Richie Hardcore has been lobbying her about it. Otherwise it's all just inexplicable.

"I think there's something more going on here, and we've seen a cover up over the last couple of months. This is a matter of huge public interest ... She must release the text."

Ardern said the text was the only one she received from Hardcore about Sroubek, she did not reply to the text, and that she had never met Sroubek.

"I didn't respond, I didn't engage. I had no involvement in this case," she said of the text this morning.

Asked why she hadn't revealed the text message previously, Ardern said she was only asked whether she knew anyone who made representations on the Sroubek case.

She did not consider the text to be a representation.

During Question Time today, Winston Peters, speaking on Ardern's behalf, said it was "utter poppy-cock" to paint the text as lobbying on Sroubek's behalf.

"To impute some sort of malicious, malignant engagement ... shows you what a bunch of Philadelphia lawyers they are," Peters said of the National Party.

Answering questions from Bridges, Peters said there were privacy issues around releasing the contents of the text.

"There's no way this Government is going to infringe upon the privacy rights of all manner of people ... just to satisfy a political leader in such desperate trouble to get attention."

Peters said that Ardern received about 50,000 communications in the past year, and the text had not been disclosed earlier because "Richie Hardcore had no role at all in the story".

Bridges: "How can we know that when we won't see the precise words of the text?"

Peters: "Take our word for it."

Bridges: "Have 50,000 people got the Prime Minister's cellphone number?"

Peters: "About 50,000 have got mine. I think probably about 100,000 have got hers."

Under questioning from National's immigration spokesman Michael Woodhouse, Lees-Galloway said he did not receive any communication from Hardcore prior to making his initial decision.

He did not think the text was a representation because he said it had no bearing on his decision.