Field urged to take a break during visa inquiry

Taito Phillip Field

The Prime Minister has urged Government minister Taito Phillip Field to "take a break", during which time a Queen's Counsel will likely investigate his role in the application for a work permit for a Thai overstayer who tiled his house in Samoa.

Helen Clark spoke to the Associate Justice Minister yesterday at her official Wellington residence, Premier House, where Labour MPs had gathered for their first post-election caucus.

Afterwards she announced that an inquiry would be conducted, and Mr Field would keep his ministerial job at this stage. However, she said she had urged him, like other MPs, to "take a break" following the intense election campaign.

Last week, it was revealed that a Thai man, Sunan Siriwan, had been turned down for refugee status in NZ but had stayed illegally.

Mr Field had asked Associate Immigration Minister Damien O'Connor to direct the Immigration Service to grant the man a work permit if he left the country and applied for it from Samoa.

Mr O'Connor said last week that he had intervened to allow Mr Siriwan to reapply for a New Zealand work permit but would look at the case again given the information that had come before him.

Helen Clark said her initial reading of the issue had been that Mr Field had been trying to be helpful.

"Of course with the Cabinet Manual there's always the issue of perceptions being important as well, so I think it's best if someone independent looks at it and gets to the bottom of it."

She said Mr Field himself had asked for an independent inquiry.

Helen Clark said she had to suspend judgment on whether his ministerial job was at risk until she saw the result of the inquiry.

She said the inquiry would be "as soon as possible". Her spokeswoman said later that it was not known when the QC would be appointed.

Mr Field also spoke with senior ministers Michael Cullen, Phil Goff and Steve Maharey yesterday morning.

National MP Tony Ryall said Helen Clark had waited until Mr Field had secured her a strong South Auckland vote in the Mangere seat - he won the largest majority in the country of 13,860 - before investigating his role.

"This is typical politics-before-integrity from Helen Clark.

"A minister is clearly involved in a conflict of interest which contravenes instructions in the Cabinet Manual, but she doesn't act because it could hurt her election chances."

Mr Field refused to comment when he arrived for caucus.

A spokeswoman for Mr O'Connor said yesterday that he was looking over the file and was awaiting information from the police.

Counties-Manukau police said on Monday that they had received information about Mr Siriwan and expected to pass it to the Immigration Service.

Mr Field has said his family has paid Mr Siriwan up to 170 to 200 tala ($91 to $108) a week since March while he waits for his New Zealand permit to come through, but he repeated on Monday that there was no "employment arrangement".

However, Mr Field's wife, Maxine, confirmed last week that she had applied for a Samoan work permit for Mr Siriwan. Officials granted it but wrote on it, "conditional on continued employment with Field".

Mr Field said on Monday that he did not know about his wife's application for the permit.

The Field family also paid about 5400 tala ($2900) to bring Mr Siriwan's partner, Luck, and their 2-year-old son from Thailand to join him in Samoa. Luck was expelled from NZ early this year after immigration officials found her during a raid on the house of another Thai family in Auckland.