Ex-staffer gives fresh ammo to attack Field

A former electorate secretary to Taito Phillip Field has alleged the Labour MP instructed someone to alter a Samoan birth certificate.

In an item aired on TVNZ's Sunday programme last night, the secretary claimed she heard Mr Field give the instructions and she challenged him about it.

Prime Minister Helen Clark gave a strong hint this morning that Mr Field does not have a long-term future in the Labour caucus.

"Of course last night's programme wasn't good," she told Newstalk ZB, "The Ingram report wasn't good and you can't carry on working like that as an MP."

The woman said in a statement to the Sunday programme: "I challenged him on this, as I thought it was very serious to alter a document like that.

"I said, 'You can't do that Phillip'. But Phillip assured me that it was okay because the registry had got the date wrong."

The allegation was firmly denied by Mr Field, who said when questioned: "I've never done that".

He also asked the woman to give her evidence to the police.

The fresh allegation is set to put the former Government minister and his party under renewed political pressure.

It comes on the heels of a Weekend Herald report which showed Mr Field and his wife Maxine appear to have misled either the Ingram inquiry or the Samoan Government over the employment of a Thai tiler.

An additional uncomfortable factor for Labour are weekend comments from former Labour Prime Minister Mike Moore that Mr Field should resign and seek re-election.

Mr Moore suggested Mr Field needed to accept that he had done something wrong, seek forgiveness and then earn redemption through a byelection.

Labour has now been toughing out the ongoing political fallout from the corruption inquiry by Noel Ingram, QC, for more than a month.

The inquiry cleared Mr Field of any conflict between his private interests and his role as a minister, but it also raised questions about the use of would-be migrants to do lowly paid jobs on the MP's properties.

Prime Minister Helen Clark was last night at a function and unable to comment immediately on the fresh allegations aired on television.

A spokesman for her office noted that people were able to put forward any allegations against Mr Field as part of Dr Ingram's investigations.

As a result of that inquiry the Prime Minister formed the view that Mr Field had made serious errors of judgment and he was no longer a minister because of that, the spokesman said.

National is set to continue its offensive on Mr Field in Parliament this week, and the latest allegations give it more ammunition to work with.

The party's immigration spokesman Lockwood Smith said the allegations against Mr Field "just keep mounting up".

Another factor highlighted in the Sunday programme was money changing hands in Mr Field's office.

The former secretary - who worked in the office between 1997 and 2002 - said she remembered Mr Field taking money from people who saw him for immigration or housing assistance. It was normally around $20.

The Ingram report canvassed the Samoan practice of lafo - a tradition involving accepting money in exchange for help.


The Field files

* Helen Clark ordered an investigation last September after allegations that Mangere MP Taito Phillip Field misused his position by seeking a favourable immigration direction for Sunan Siriwan, a Thai tiler alleged to have been working on his house in Samoa. Other allegations, including some of a similar nature, were also made. Mr Field was not reappointed a minister after the election.

* After an inquiry, Noel Ingram, QC, found Mr Field had not misused his ministerial position but raised serious questions about his judgment. Dr Ingram found Mr Field got cheap labour from several people to whom he gave immigration help. Helen Clark said the decision not to reappoint him to a ministerial post was his punishment.

* The Opposition believes Mr Field should be forced from Parliament, and further issues are emerging including:

1. The apparent contradiction between a Samoan work visa application confirming the Fields would employ Mr Siriwan there and their subsequent denial to Dr Ingram that they ever intended to employ him.

2. Fellow Labour MP Ross Robertson's admission that he spent time with Mr Field and Mr Siriwan after Mr Siriwan had just arrived in Samoa and had the "impression" he was there working on the Fields' house.

3. Last night's claims on Sunday that Mr Field instructed someone to change a Samoan birth certificate - a claim Mr Field denies.

Additional reporting: Newstalk ZB