Pressure is mounting on New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and his chief of staff Wayne Eagleson over their role in the release of a journalist's phone records following the resignation of Parliamentary Service boss Geoff Thorn.
Mr Thorn resigned on Thursday morning over the release of Fairfax reporter Andrea Vance's phone records to the David Henry inquiry into who leaked a NZ spy agency report to Ms Vance.
Friday will be his final day in the role and he will receive a payout of three months' salary and entitlements owing.
Speaker David Carter on Tuesday admitted the phone records were handed over without Vance's permission or knowledge.
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman says resigning was the right thing for Mr Thorn to do, but he had been under "enormous pressure" from the prime minister's office to release the information to the inquiry.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
"I think now the question has to be: what responsibility will John Key and Wayne Eagleson take for leaning on Geoff Thorn? ... He had the expectation put on him that he would release that data."
Mr Eagleson emailed the Parliamentary Service a month after the inquiry launched to say Mr Key wanted it to release "records from ministerial office photocopiers and any other relevant material requested".
An email from the inquiry to the Parliamentary Service said it was "interested in any contact between the below ministers' personal landlines and these numbers: 1. A Vance landline; 2 A Vance extension; 3. A Vance mobile".
However, Mr Henry said he did not seek the records, and did not look at them.
The inquiry prompted independent MP Peter Dunne's resignation as a minister after he refused to hand over his emails with Vance.
Mr Dunne denies being behind the leak of the GCSB report.
It has previously been revealed that the Parliamentary Service gave the inquiry Mr Dunne's email logs without his permission, and Ms Vance's security swipe card data without her permission.
Mr Dunne on Thursday said he believed logs of his parliamentary mobile phone were also given to the inquiry without his permission.
