National has "done nothing inappropriate, we've done nothing illegal, there has there has been no hacking", Simon Bridges emphatically said during a press conference at Parliament today to discuss Budget documents that the Treasury has suggested were hacked.
The National leader, who yesterday released "leaked" information he said was part of Budget 2019, told reporters today the info was "absolutely" not obtained by hacking. He also accused the Finance Minister of lying.
However, he refused to disclose how National obtained the information.
The highly secretive details of the Budget were slated to be released tomorrow.
Treasury said in a statement last night it had gathered enough evidence that its systems had been "deliberately and systematically hacked".
Simon Bridges won’t say how he got the information.
Mr Bridges claimed Treasury was "misleading New Zealanders" and the claim was "demonstrably false".
Mr Bridges said the Government was "having a witch hunt on the National Party" and the party had acted "entirely appropriately".
"There has been no hacking under any definition of that word," he said. "There was nothing illegal or even approaching that by the National Party.
"We have acted legally, appropriately, without any hacking or anything approaching that."
Today's statement comes after Treasury confirmed in a statement it was the source of National's Budget 2019 leaks after its "systems were deliberately and systematically hacked".
1 NEWS political editor Jessica Mutch McKay has the latest on the developing story.
The Government contacted the National Party and asked that they release no further material in light of the data breach.
"This is extremely serious and is now a matter for the police," Finance Minister Grant Robertson said.
But Bridges replied via Twitter last night: "The National Party has acted entirely appropriately."
Mr Robertson earlier said of the leak that there were "some numbers that are right and some numbers that are wrong" .
SHARE ME