NZ Election 2020: Judith Collins not acting as 'morals police' over National MPs

No National MPs have come forward to leader Judith Collins to disclose anything in the wake of the Andrew Falloon scandal, she says. 

Falloon, the former National MP for Rangitata, resigned last week after being accused of sending indecent images to young women.

Following his resignation, Collins said, until she received information the week earlier, she hadn't been aware of the issue. She said she would tell her caucus that they "need to come and see me if there is anything they need to disclose, straight away".

Asked on Tuesday if any MPs had come forward since, she said no one had. 

"I'm not the morals police and the National Party, I don't pretend... I am not their mother confessor for goodness sake," she told media. 

"But it is very important that people know that if they indulge in any activity that could involve a police investigation that we know about it very quickly."

Falloon initially said on Monday that he would retire from Parliament at the election, citing mental health reasons. However, it quickly emerged that he was accused of sending a pornographic image to a woman. 

Police had previously investigated "after receiving a report of an individual sending an unsolicited image", but the matter didn't meet the threshold for prosecution. By Tuesday, Collins was aware of more complainants, something she raised with police, and on Thursday, a police spokesperson confirmed they were again investigating

The National leader - who rose to power two weeks ago - said she was previously unaware of the police investigation and those in the former leadership team also said they hadn't been informed.

Speaking to The AM Show on Wednesday last week, Collins said she also believed Falloon's family probably wasn't aware either. 

"When I spoke to Andrew Falloon on Monday, I offered to ring his family and he asked me not to. It became obvious yesterday that his family had no idea what was going on or even that he had been under investigation."

She said her fellow MPs had been "shocked" to hear about Falloon's alleged conduct and she made it clear she expects the same behaviour from MPs in Parliament as would be expected in any other professional work environment.