One person had six convictions for driving with excess breath alcohol plus two convictions for driving without a licence.

The documents show the decision was made using Lees-Galloway's absolute discretion. "This person is a protected person in New Zealand and deportation was not an option," he said.



According to Immigration New Zealand, a protected person is a person for whom there are "substantial grounds for believing she or he would be in danger of torture, arbitrary deprivation of life or cruel treatment if deported from New Zealand".

National Party justice spokesperson Mark Mitchell told Newshub Lees-Galloway needs to front up to a lot of unanswered questions.

"There better be some very good reasons for it because he's granted residency to someone who's got multiple drink driving offences, so he's a recidivist offender. You're playing Russian roulette with Kiwis' lives when you've got someone out there drink driving.

"Not only that, I think he's got two convictions for driving without a licence as well. It's showing he's got absolutely no care or concern about our laws and the safety of other road users."

Karel Sroubek was the other criminal granted residency. The initial decision made by Lees-Galloway to allow him to stay was shrouded in controversy. The minister pulled a u-turn, revoking his initial decision after public outrage and political pressure after it was revealed he made the decision in under an hour and without reading Sroubek's full immigration file.