6.15pm - By PETER WILSON
Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel's officials were described as "a pack of liars" in Parliament today as opposition MPs tried to discover who was guilty of misleading Ombudsman Mel Smith.
Ms Dalziel fended off probing questions by telling MPs she had ordered an inquiry, and they should wait for it to report before attacking peoples' reputations.
The latest damaging twist to the scandal was revealed today when the New Zealand Herald reported the Immigration Service told the Ombudsman there was no record of a memo written by its media spokesman Ian Smith, and that Mr Smith could not recall writing it.
The newspaper has obtained a copy of Mr Smith's memo, which said: "I was let down badly. Everyone agreed to lie in unison, but all the others caved in and I was the only one left singing the original song."
That was in response to a critical Herald editorial about the way he had handled the newspaper's inquiries about the detention in December of suspected terrorist Ahmed Zaoui.
Ms Dalziel yesterday strongly denied there had been any "agreement to lie" within the service, and said she would resign if it was ever proved to have existed.
Mr Smith's memo was described as a satirical aside, and a flippant comment that was not intended to be taken seriously.
However, the denial that it was on record gave National, New Zealand First and ACT fresh ammunition to launch another assault on the minister.
National MP Murray McCully said the service's general manager, Andrew Lockhart, was one of those who received Mr Smith's memo.
"How can it be that Mr Lockhart was one of the officials who falsely advised the Ombudsman that such material was not held by the Immigration Service, and what reliance would the House place on any report he might make?" he asked.
Ms Dalziel said that since she announced the inquiry it had been upgraded to Secretary of Labour James Buwalda. The Immigration Service is part of the Department of Labour.
None of her assurances satisfied the MPs, and ACT's Rodney Hide recalled that on November 15 2000 she had told Parliament her officials had not hold her the truth about another matter.
"We now discover, courtesy of the Herald, that the same department has lied to the Ombudsman. Why should we have any confidence in this department when they appear a pack of liars," he said.
The issue again took up most of question time in Parliament, becoming tangled up in the detail of who sent e-mails, which officials might have been involved and how much Ms Dalziel knew about it.
"Preliminary inquiries have identified that as there was more than one person dealing with the matter both from the Ombudsman's office and the Immigration Service, a communications breakdown could explain the different answers," Ms Dalziel said.
"There is the ability in the situation for an explanation to arise out of the inquiry."
It was Mr McCully who tried to get a copy of the memo from the service, and went to the Ombudsman when his Official Information Act request was refused.
Mr Mel Smith wrote to Mr McCully saying: "I subsequently received advice from Mr Ian Smith of the NZIS that he has no record of any such information, nor is he able to recall any information of this nature."
Mr McCully claimed the events substantiated Mr Smith's "lie in unison" comment.
"Now it's clear that Mr Smith lied to the Herald on December 12, and both Mr Lockhart and Mr Smith lied to the Ombudsman, has it occured to the minister that Mr Smith's memo stating 'we agreed to lie in unison' might be a very accurate record of her officials' intentions?" he asked.
Ms Dalziel repeatedly told the MPs to wait for Dr Buwalda's report.
"I hope that member (Mr McCully) is prepared to apologise if he's attacked the reputations of people unreasonably," she said.
- NZPA
Herald Feature: Immigration
Related links
MPs accuse immigration officials of lying
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