Labour Party officials will have a "quiet word" to MP Rick Barker after he gave questionable advice to people running a poll he was overseeing.
The poll, run to canvass political opinion, used volunteers aligned with Labour who were advised to use false names and a non-existent company when cold-calling.
Barker initially said he knew nothing about it when asked by the Herald on Sunday, which had been alerted to the situation, but then said he told volunteers to use false names so as to feel more comfortable about cold calling.
Barker managed to avoid reporters before a caucus meeting on Tuesday due to another engagement, but Labour leader Phil Goff said his MP should have been up front when first questioned.
He probably had not done so as it was likely he didn't want to advertise the link with the party, Goff said.
Advertising the fact the poll was a Labour Party initiative was likely to have influenced responses.
Goff said he was aware of the polling, but not the details.
While there was nothing malicious in the polling, Goff said false names should not have been used and he was unaware Data Research wasn't an existing company.
"I think we'll have a quiet work to Rick, but the advice that people could use a different name from their own should be changed..."
Goff said "given the controversy around it", the polling was not likely to continue in the same form and in the future the party was likely to continue with its traditional practice of using professional polling companies.
Acting Prime Minister Bill English said party polling needed to be done openly.
"Labour are usually lecturing other people about being up front, so I think in this case they need to explain what they are doing," he told reporters on Tuesday.
English said the National Party had transparency around who paid for polls and who was conducting them.
Polling on public interest issues was always funded out of parliamentary money, while polling on party support was funded by the party.
Speaking from Asia at the weekend, Prime Minister John Key said it was wrong to use false names and taxpayer money for political polling.
Goff said those doing the calling in the case in question were volunteers, saving the party money, and the only costs involved would have been the use of parliamentary phones.
