Phil Twyford has admitted that a staffer, who owned a lobby firm, worked part time for the Minister, while also working for himself.

Twyford yesterday told Heather du Plessis-Allan that there were two periods in question.

“There was one where he was working full time for me and his company wasn’t trading at that point, actively.

“There was a second period where he worked part-time for a number of months, and during that time, my advice is that he did some other contracts.”

Barry Ebert worked as a specialist ministerial adviser for Twyford until a few weeks ago.

Twyford insists Ebert's firm wasn't actively trading while Ebert worked for him full time, and that there was no conflict of interest. However, the incident has raised questions about current and former lobbyist working in government.

Political commentator Matthew Hooton told Mike Hosking that you simply can't be working at the Beehive while advertising your services as a lobbyist. 

He says that Ebert and Twyford may say that the company was inactive, the website was still active.

"Imagine if it was a billboard outside the Beehive, everyone would say 'you can't possibly have a billboard outside the Beehive'."

Hooton says Ebert does not appear to have been actively running the firm, but it is a sign of how lax New Zealand is around this type of thing. 

"Even in Trump's Washington, these people would be in custody if something like this happened."