Immigration says it warned Government of cloud over minister

Taito Phillip Field

Noel Ingram, QC, is investigating whether there was a conflict of interest in Taito Phillip Field's asking the Associate Immigration Minister to grant a work permit to a Thai overstayer who tiled his house in Samoa.

Mr Ingram is also investigating allegations that another Thai overstayer painted four houses for Mr Field in Auckland.

A claim by a South Auckland family that Mr Field bought their house, which they risked losing in a mortgagee sale, and sold it 16 months later for a $136,000 profit is also being investigated.

Former immigration minister Paul Swain was warned about potential conflicts of interest around Labour MP Taito Phillip Field months before the Government ordered an inquiry into his affairs, a parliamentary select committee was told yesterday.

Mr Field, the Mangere MP and former associate minister of Pacific Island affairs, lost his ministerial roles and is the subject of an independent inquiry.

Opposition MPs had accused the Government of putting off dealing with the allegations because the report might have hurt Labour's election chances.

At a select committee meeting yesterday on immigration issues, National MP Lockwood Smith asked immigration officials for a status report on the inquiry.

Deputy Secretary for Labour Mary Anne Thompson confirmed the department had provided information "some time ago" but she had yet to see the report, which would first go to the Prime Minister's Office.

Dr Smith said he understood immigration officials visited Mr Field's house in Samoa in March with Mr Swain and the then Foreign Minister, Phil Goff.

Ms Thompson said she did not believe this was the case.

However, she admitted officials were "aware of this situation bubbling away under the surface" at that time, through information received from Samoan Government sources.

Dr Smith asked whether officials had communicated "any unease" to the Immigration Minister regarding the situation.

Ms Thompson stated she had raised the issue with the minister personally before he went to Samoa.

Dr Smith also grilled officials over the "smart-arse answers" he had received to his parliamentary questions on immigration issues.

Dr Smith said the minister, when asked how many representations made by MPs on behalf of people seeking residency had been successful, and what categories they were approved under, had replied: "I do not consider this a good use of my department's time and resources."

Dr Smith said he would have thought the issue went "right to the heart of the department's work" and such "marginal" cases were a matter of legitimate public interest.

Figures released by the Labour Department last month showed Mr Field asked the Associate Immigration Minister at the time, Damien O'Connor, to intervene in 438 immigration cases over the last term of Parliament - far more than any other MP.

The next closest were Ethnic Affairs Minister Chris Carter, who made 176 requests to Mr O'Connor to intervene, and Labour's Manurewa MP George Hawkins, who made 172 requests.

Ms Thompson told Dr Smith it was possible for the department to provide such information - in fact, the department had provided the minister with "a draft reply".

Dr Smith said he interpreted her answer to mean that it was "not your observation" that answering parliamentary questions was a waste of time, and asked whether he and the select committee could see a copy of the draft reply. Ms Thompson replied she would have to take advice.

- NZPA