Opposition predicts 'whitewash' in leaked-letter inquiry

By HELEN TUNNAH, deputy political editor

An inquiry into how a lawyer's private notes were sent from the Prime Minister's electorate office to Lianne Dalziel will be a whitewash unless the investigation is widened, Opposition parties said yesterday.

Both National and Act called for the terms of reference for the inquiry to be broadened to include people who do not work for the Government.

Queen's Counsel Kit Toogood will conduct the inquiry for the State Services Commission into the leaking of legal documents from Helen Clark's Mt Albert electorate office, but his questioning is limited to the role of Immigration and electorate office workers.

Ms Dalziel was last week effectively sacked from her job as Immigration Minister after having to admit that she publicly released the usually confidential documents and then lied about it.

The notes related to the removal of a Sri Lankan girl, who claimed she had been sexually abused. She was refused refugee status because she could not prove her life would be in danger if she went home, and sexual abuse is not usually a ground for claiming refugee status.

Ms Dalziel has offered different versions of how she got the documents, including that they were faxed by the girl's lawyer, Carole Curtis, to the electorate office or were given to a group which may have had links to the office and was trying to elicit support for the girl.

Ms Dalziel used the document to discredit the girl and her lawyer.

Ms Curtis has denied she sent the material, which included a letter containing legal advice on how to fight the removal.

She has said they may instead have been sent to the electorate office by Immigration workers who took them from the girl's room when she was expelled.

An employee at the electorate office, Theresa Colgan, says in an affidavit that she faxed the documents to Ms Dalziel twice this month, as the Government faced a barrage of negative publicity about the girl's case.

The second time the document was faxed was after Helen Clark's long-time friend, Joan Caulfield, spoke to Ms Dalziel about the case three days after the girl was expelled. Ms Dalziel gave the documents to the media the following day, but claimed she had no idea how they got them.

Helen Clark said yesterday that she was unhappy that documents sent to her office for one purpose - such as seeking support - might have been used for another. She has referred the matter to the Parliamentary Service, which employs electorate staff, but it will not investigate until after the State Services Commission inquiry is over.

National MP Judith Collins told Parliament yesterday that the inquiry needed to be more extensive. It should also inquire into the actions of any non-Government staff who might have worked at the electorate office or handled the documents.

"It will simply be a whitewash," she said.

Act leader Richard Prebble said questions should be asked about whether any lobby groups were working from the Prime Minister's electorate office, which is funded by taxpayers.

Mr Toogood will be able to call any witnesses he chooses, and has been asked to complete his inquiry by March 19.

In another development last night, the Parliamentary Service and Ministerial Services have been asked to investigate who sent an abusive letter to Ms Curtis.

The letter, which contained a reference to a "curse" and said the author's "buddy" had lost her job, was posted in an envelope franked in Wellington which had come from the former Office of the Minister of Lands.

Terms of reference

Kit Toogood, QC, will have the same powers to summon witnesses and receive evidence as a commission of inquiry and will investigate:The circumstances in which an employee of the Immigration Service or of the Parliamentary Service (the two electorate office staff) handled or obtained a copy of the annotated letter.

Actions taken in respect of the copy of the letter by any such employee.

The involvement, if any, of any such employee in the passing of the letter to any party, including the electorate office for the member of Parliament for Mt Albert and/or in the transmission of the letter to the Immigration Minister.