The phone records of Fairfax journalist Andrea Vance were probably read despite denials by the head of the Henry Inquiry, UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne says.



Appearing before the privileges committee in Parliament today, Dunne outlined his contact with the inquiry, the conduct of which is being investigated by the committee.



Dunne said it had shown "little or no regard" to the legal rights and privileges afforded to communication with MPs.



Instead, the inquiry asked for, and was given access to, information which would reveal details down to how often he went to the toilet.



David Henry, a former commissioner of the Inland Revenue, was asked to investigate who leaked a report by Cabinet secretary Rebecca Kitteridge into the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) to Vance.



The report found that dozens of New Zealanders may have been illegally spied on by the agency.



Henry's report did not point the finger at Dunne, but pointedly said repeatedly that he could not be ruled out because he refused to hand over his emails with Vance in the lead-up to her report.



Dunne denied leaking the report, claiming he refused to release the emails because of a duty of privilege.



Dunne told the committee today that before his first meeting with Henry, he never received any request from Parliamentary Service, Ministerial Services or the Henry Inquiry seeking authorisation to access his email or phone records.



"Yet, when I met Mr Henry on 23 May, he was able to tell me of the number of emails that Andrea Vance and I had exchanged between 27 March and 9 April," Dunne said in his submission.



Henry requested full access to his emails with Vance, which Dunne refused.



Later Henry requested access to Dunne's landline phone records, during a period in which he was overseas, so he was prepared to agree.



"I distinctly recall his saying that he wanted them for the purposes of comparison. This strongly suggests to me he already had viewed Ms Vance's phone records. Emails released by the DPMC [Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet] on 2 August also make it clear Ms Vance's phone records had been provided to the inquiry for a three-month period. I do not know the period of time over which my records were provided."



In late July, Speaker David Carter released a statement admitting he had given incorrect answers to written questions from the Green Party, in which he had claimed that the Henry Inquiry had requested Vance's phone records from Parliamentary Service, but was rejected.



Carter said the phone records were not requested by Henry, but he had received them by accident.



Prime Minister John Key said the inquiry was aware of a mandate to focus only on ministers and their staff, not the press.



At the time Dunne said Henry had told him that he was seeking both his phone records and Vance's.



Today he went further, confirming outside the committee he believed the inquiry had accessed Vance's phone records.



"I think it's highly unlikely to have records and not actually access them," he told reporters, refusing to stop as he walked to the lift in Parliament.



The inquiry was also given access to Dunne's emails, which Parliamentary Service also claims were handed over in error without request.



Dunne said he had written to the Speaker seeking confirmation that no-one else had accessed the emails in the more than five hours they were on the Parliamentary Service server. He had not yet had an answer.



Dunne said he expected Parliamentary Service would conduct a detailed examination to establish who, if anyone, accessed the emails for the period they were on the server.



That would help clear up whether NZ First leader Winston Peters was telling the truth about having seen the emails - though Dunne said he did not believe Peters had.



"I've challenged him before to put up or shut up and every time its fallen on deaf ears."



Wearing his signature bow tie, Dunne was accompanied by lawyer Matthew Palmer, the son of former prime minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer.