Police must decide on Thai man's Field claims, says Clark [+audio]

Helen Clark and Taito Phillip Field

It is up to police to establish if a Thai man at the centre of the Taito Phillip Field controversy is telling the truth, Prime Minister Helen Clark says.

Thai tiler Sunan Suriwan, who is living in Samoa, said at the weekend he believed Mr Field had promised he would get him a New Zealand work permit if he worked on his house in Samoa.

Mr Field has said there was no arrangement for Mr Suriwan to work on his house before he left New Zealand.

However, once he arrived in Samoa, he offered to work on the house voluntarily. His visa application was already under way and was not dependent on him working on the house.

Mr Field is under police investigation over claims he accepted money from constituents and a raft of allegations surrounding a report by Noel Ingram QC, who carried out an inquiry into Mr Field's dealings with Asian immigrants he helped to gain visas.

Helen Clark today said there was a clear conflict of evidence between Mr Suriwan and Mr Field.

"You've obviously got a conflict of evidence. He says one thing, Mr Field says another. That's what a police investigation needs to sort out," Miss Clark told Newstalk ZB.

- NZPA