No way back as minister for Field, says PM [audio report]

Taito Phillip Field

Labour MP Taito Phillip Field should not bank on a return to a ministerial position, Prime Minister Helen Clark said today.

She said the errors of judgment highlighted in a long-awaited report last week have put a dampener on his ministerial aspirations,

A nine-month investigation into Mr Field's business dealings with constituents and those seeking immigration permits last week cleared him of conflict of interest as a minister, but raised questions about his judgment as a MP.

Mr Field, who was made a minister outside cabinet in 2002, was stood down from his ministerial positions during the investigation.

"Being a minister is about judgment and there wasn't good judgment shown here," Miss Clark told Newstalk ZB this morning.

Mr Field has said the $479,000 report, by Noel Ingram QC, exonerated him and he wanted his ministerial positions back.

He told television programme Tagata Pasifika last week he would expect reinstatement in due course.

Asked if he would quit Labour if he did not get his way, he said he expected Labour to stand by its values of "fairness and justice".

Helen Clark today said on Newstalk ZB the Ingram report was a "significant dampener" to the MP's ministerial aspirations. He was previously associate minister of justice, of Pacific Island Affairs, of social development and of employment.

The report found that overstayers worked on Mr Field's houses in Samoa and New Zealand, in an arrangement National now refers to as "slave labour".

Helen Clark said the Labour leadership and its whips would work with Mr Field on the "appropriate boundaries" when dealing with people who come to see MPs.

"It's clear to me that Mr Field got much too close to people who were coming to him for help and that appears to have set up some kind of sense of mutual obligation.

"So those are issues he's going to have to work through. It's very important to have a clear line between your personal interests and friendships on the one hand and what you advocate for on the other.

"I think that line was blurred and therein lies the problem."

National MPs have been sifting through the report looking for anything they might be able to refer to the police, Inland Revenue or the Labour Department.

National has called for a wider investigation but Helen Clark has rejected its calls for a commission of inquiry, saying the Government did not want to spend any more taxpayer money on the case.

Speaker Margaret Wilson is still deciding whether Parliament's privileges committee should become involved.

- NZPA