The National Party has described the secretive foundation funding New Zealand First as “an unprecedented rort that's undermining Jacinda Ardern's Government - and the country".
The Prime Minister has since responded, saying that it is not her job to intervene with the Labour Party’s coalition partner.
NZ First’s former treasurer, Colin Forster, only learned of the New Zealand Foundation earlier this week.
“We'd just come out of a general election and the funds of the party were pretty skint,” Mr Forster said.
“It's unbelievable, it really is. I'm speechless in some ways because I always work by the book.”
Mr Peters and his party are under fire over the secretive New Zealand First Foundation.
The Electoral Commission has since launched an investigation into the secretive foundation, which has lent hundreds of thousands of dollars to the party in recent years.
“We would welcome the investigation, because a whole lot of people are making fake news, false allegations,” NZ First leader Winston Peters said.
He told them to “stop your narrow, myopic dirt when NZ First is concerned”.
Despite concerns raised by critics, Ms Ardern has maintained that the issue is a “matter for the Electoral Commission”.
In Parliament's Question Time today Ms Ardern said: "It would be wrong for me as the leader of a political party to inquire into the practices of any other political party".
Mr Bridges believes the foundation threatens democracy.
National’s leader told TVNZ1’s Breakfast the investigation needs to be taken further than the Electoral Commission.
“There are questions of trust in the integrity of her Government that go right to its very heart," he said.
Associates of Mr Peters, who run the foundation, were again unwilling to answer questions around the loans.
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