National leader Simon Bridges has hinted there may be more than just ministerial incompetence behind the Karel Sroubek scandal as he called for Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway to resign over the affair.
Mr Bridges felt we still hadn’t got to the bottom of the scandal despite last week’s revelations that Mr Lees-Galloway took just an hour to consider Mr Sroubek’s case.
"Because as I’ve said on this show, the decision has always been wrong, now we’re just deciding how wrong it is," he said.
"New revelations last week that shows there was no careful consideration, what I would say to you is this, I think we still haven’t gotten to the bottom of this."
"For example, I want to know for New Zealanders, who made representation to him, what went on there to affect his decision and ultimately to affect the prime minister in sticking up for him on a decision that at no way shape or form made sense."
Mr Lees-Galloway has said he carefully considered all the relevant information before allowing Czech convict Karel Sroubek to stay in New Zealand. But last week he acknowledged the entire process took "an hour or so" and that he didn't read the entire file, leading to further pressure.
Mr Bridges said he subscribed to the political theory that things happen either through cock-up or conspiracy.
"Now this was either incredibly incompetent, it seems like that probably is so, but I do want to get to the bottom of exactly what went down here ‘cause it just doesn’t seem right."
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