National MP Nuk Korako was surprised when his staffer called to say abusive tweets had been sent from his Twitter account.

A National MP is taking full responsibility for a series of abusive tweets sent from his Parliament-issued phone by his sons and nephews.

Nuk Korako, a list MP based in the Port Hills, had his phone hijacked by his family while he was at a briefing about the Christchurch fires on Friday morning.

He said he hadn't seen the funny side of it and was apologetic to those people he "upset".

"(My kids) are still getting used to me being a politician I suppose - bless them. And the fact that they want to try and protect you I suppose in some ways, but they didn't do it this time did they?"

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One of the tweets sent from his Twitter account was to a former Labour candidate James Dann and asked: "Why are you breathing?"

Another said, "I'd better put Dad's phone back as I've had my fun now. No wonder he never responds to you dicks".

Korako said he hoped he hadn't "caused any sort of harm to the people that those tweets went out to because they were inappropriate and it's just not the medium that you do that sort of thing".

"I'm sure that some of those people were upset so I just apologise."

Korako has two phones and had taken his personal phone with him thinking his work phone battery was dead.

He got quite the surprise when his parliamentary staffer called him and asked what the tweets were about.

"I use Twitter rarely - just to sort of let people know where I am and what I'm doing. I don't engage much at all really.''

Korako said it was not common for his kids and nephews, who ranged between 18 and 23-years-old, to be mucking around on his phone.

And as to whether they got a telling off? "Absolutely," he said.

"It's been a really difficult week. I've been in the electorate since the fires and sort of back and forwards and I suppose they've seen how hard I've been working and stuff like that."

Korako last hit the headlines after his "lost luggage" bill, excusing airport authorities from placing newspaper advertisements for auctions of lost property, was drawn from the member's ballot in August.

The Government was accused of stuffing the ballot with "trivial" bills to avoid others being drawn, and eventually decided to place Korako's bill within its Statutes Amendment Bill rather than suffer the embarrassment of a debate in Parliament.