Smith Lockwood: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Smith Lockwood: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:649;Page:17709] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 I want the Minister of Immigration to tell us what he is going to do about the shambolic state within Immigration New Zealand where his group manager of service international was investigated for appointing a business associate to head up the Pacific division and where he approved payments for that person that appear to have been not totally lawful. At the time it was found that he was approving those payments he carried on approving payments to his executive assistant for things like luxury hotels rental cars and even a flat-screen TV and a DVD player. The group manager approved those payments after he had been caught out approving payments to Mai Malaulau that she should not have received. 
Then we have the daddy of them all. Not long after all of that was going on we had the Oughton inquiry into the scandal surrounding the granting of residence to family members of Mary Anne Thompson. Again the reports on those matters came out in April and August under the watch of the Minister who says he runs the show David Cunliffe. 
I want that Minister one day to tell us what in the Oughton report was just an employment matter. David Oughton made three recommendations. The first of those recommendations was that those people who had missed out on residence because of unlawful decision-making needed to have their cases considered. Only the Minister could do that so what has that to do with an employment matter? The second recommendation was that a protocol was needed to deal with the issue of family members of staff in Immigration New Zealand making applications that had to be considered. What has that to do with an employment matter? That is a matter that requires the consideration of the development of a protocol for an important function. Thirdly the Oughton report said there was a wider problem of managers directing staff members to make decisions that were outside of policy—in other words to make unlawful decisions. What does that have to do with a specific employment matter? So there we have the three recommendations of the Oughton inquiry. There was nothing to do with an employment matter and David Cunliffe the Minister who was briefed on that inquiry claimed it was just an employment matter. 
I want the current Minister who has had to cover up for his predecessor David Cunliffe to tell us why the department fought to keep the Oughton report secret. The department fought for months to stop that report becoming public and if it had not become public no one would have known about the unlawful decision-making and about the involvement of all those people who are still in Immigration New Zealand: the group manager of service international who approved all those illegal payments and who was involved in the whole scandal around Mary Anne Thompson and Mai Malaulau. Those people are still operating in Immigration New Zealand and their actions would have all been covered up if Immigration New Zealand had not been forced under the Official Information Act to release the Oughton report. 
The saga I have just outlined that series of absolutely scandalous goings-on in Immigration New Zealand deserves some answers. I know that the Minister will say there is an inquiry being made into the Pacific division but one of the key people at the centre of all those scandals Mr Kerupi Tavita is not just the manager of the Pacific division but also group manager of service international which includes the whole refugee section of Immigration New Zealand. How do we know that he has not applied his same scandalous management to the whole refugee sector? How do we know there have not been the same outrageous decisions—in fact what have now turned out to be unlawful decisions—going on within the refugee section of Immigration New Zealand? Kerupi Tavita does not just head up the Pacific division; he covers the entire refugee decision-making process as well as the Pacific division. 
I think the Minister should tell us today whether the inquiry will cover all of the activities of Mr Kerupi Tavita because clearly he has been involved in decision making under his responsibility that is quite unlawful. He approved unlawful payments and what is so bad is that when it was pointed out to him that he was approving unlawful payments he went on doing that. He went on approving them to his executive assistant after the Chemis report pointed out that he should not have been approving the payments to his head of the Pacific division Mai Malaulau. 
There is a series of scandals there and I want the Minister to tell this Committee whether the inquiry will go wider than just the Pacific division of Immigration New Zealand.