KEY POINTS:
One of the most disturbing elements to emerge in the Phillip Field affair is the MP's allegation that he was ordered by the Prime Minister's Department to keep public silence in the face of a criminal inquiry.
For months Field has worn political opprobrium over his refusal to front up to Parliament (or news media) over issues at the centre of the police investigations.
The salary that has been wasted while he was on leave has been calculated down to the nearest dollar.
More allegations have surfaced about the nature of the former Cabinet minister's relationship with the Thai tiler who worked for him at underpaid rates while Field sought to get him an immigration clearance.
During this time the MP has remained steadfastly silent and been punished in the courtroom of public opinion for doing so.
But it was not until this week - when finally provoked into comment by the boss' criticism of his actions as immoral and unethical - that we got an inkling that his silence was not necessarily an act of two-fingered arrogance, but the result of a political omerta deal that would have done the Mafia proud. Once Field went public by agreeing to respond to Clark's comments on television the political bullet was waiting.
Field, just like former Police Commissioner Peter Doone before him, had already been politically ambushed by an unsourced story in last week's Sunday Star Times which (this time) stated that political sources in the capital had told the paper that the police could move within days on charges which could include breaches of the Immigration Act and corruption.
It would not be surprising if Field suspected Clark's hand in the story given her track record in Doone's fall, and the escalation of her rhetoric against him. And who could blame him for busting out?
I suspect it was that suspicion that spooked Field into making his own admission that he might stand as an independent next year if Labour bumped him. Clark is capable of such calculation but in this case she seemed genuinely cut short by his comments on TV.
"You cannot have a situation where someone appears in the media cutting across my statement to Parliament as Prime Minister, threatening to sue me and saying that he's thinking of running for someone else," was Clark's telling comment. Her instant retaliation was a visceral response to how her statement to Parliament was bumped down the news lists.
Irrespective of this Field has shown an honourable streak by the manner in which he tendered his resignation from Labour. He demonstrated political smarts by saying he would not rock Labour's boat and deny the Government its number 61 vote, the critical vote the Prime Minister needs to command her parliamentary majority, then under-pinned this with a genuine admission that he was put into the seat by Mangere's Labour voters on that party's policies and platforms and would ensure they were upheld.
Yesterday he displayed courage by announcing his return to Parliament within the week, making clear without saying, that it was only Labour Party dictate that kept him home from work in the first place.
The party execution squad which was set to complete his expulsion has been denied a day in the sun. Which is just as well given the lengthy state of denial Labour exhibited over the Field affair predating his final falling out with Clark.
Field did, however, undermine his position when he claimed politicians and political commentators had attacked him because he happened to be a useful vehicle to get at the Government and get rid of Labour's number 61 vote. On the surface this looks like good politics.
But it reinforces the perception that Field lacks insight into the importance of the matters in QC Noel Ingram's report which raised questions over the payments Field accepted from constituents and the help he gave to a visa-seeking Thai tiler who worked on his houses at under-paid rates.
He is right to say that the way in which his silence was commanded while he faced a police investigation into allegations of corruption and bribery has been grossly unfair to him and the due process.
Field will continue to be a liability to Labour until the investigation is settled or if charges are laid, until the court case is heard.
He will be an outcast in Labour's eyes once he takes up a seat on the Opposition benches. But he will have his voice - a fundamental right that should never have been denied him in the first place.
