Misleading reply not my fault: minister

Jonathan Coleman. Photo / Mark MItchell

Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman told Parliament yesterday he was not responsible for the actions of the Immigration Service towards the New Zealand Herald.

Labour MP Pete Hodgson was questioning Dr Coleman over misleading answers an immigration official gave the Herald last month.

Mr Hodgson said the official had denied the service had reopened an investigation into any role National MP Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi had played in an immigration scam, "when only one week before ... at a Queen St venue, two individuals were interviewed at length by an experienced immigration investigator".

Dr Coleman absolved himself of responsibility: "I cannot be responsible for their actions after the fact."

The reopened investigation has been handed over to the police, the Herald revealed this week.

The acting head of the Immigration Service, Stephen Dunstan, says that Immigration New Zealand did not re-open the case after it closed the file on April 2.

He told the Herald in a letter that there seems to have been a "misunderstanding" about what constitutes an inquiry or an investigation.

"The department did not make any new inquiries after the immigration investigation was closed on 2 April but was provided with new information which was assessed and passed on to the police."

New information had been provided to the New Zealand investigator on July 17, the person who provided the information was interviewed, and the information was passed to the police by Immigration on July 20 but the Immigration investigation was not re-opened.

The Minister of Immigration had been informed on July 20 as part of the "no surprises" policy that an unsworn affidavit had been provided to the Department of Labour.

The Immigration New Zealand investigation file was handed over to the police on July 28.

The Immigration Service is no stranger to controversy over misleading answers.

It was investigated by the Ombudsman in 2004 over the infamous "Lying in Unison" memo by a public relations official about an agreement to deny knowledge of the arrest of Ahmed Zaoui.

Mr Hodgson pressed Dr Coleman about the role his political adviser James Watson had played in the Department of Labour - Immigration's overseer - cancelling an interview it had agreed to with the Herald in June about the first investigation into the scam.

Dr Coleman said the decision was the department's to take.