Smith Lockwood: General Debate 
Smith Lockwood: General Debate 
[Volume:647;Page:16155] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 I want to take this Parliament back to just over 12 months ago when the senior private secretary of the Hon David Cunliffe would have knocked on his door come bowling into his office and said to him: “Minister I’ve just had a call from the Secretary of Labour. He wants to see you urgently.” The Minister would have said: “OK then. Find a time.” Later that afternoon the Secretary of Labour would have come across to the Minister’s office and said to the Minister: “Minister I’ve got to tell you that we’ve just discovered that it seems some unlawful decisions have been made in our department. It’s so serious that we’re going to appoint an independent investigator to have a look at this. I’m suggesting that we actually get the former Secretary for Justice to have a look at it. You need to know Minister that it actually involves the family of the workforce deputy secretary.” Naturally the secretary did not bring any officials across with him because to tell the Minister that the head of Immigration New Zealand was under investigation for illegal decisions in the department for which that Minister was responsible is not something one would have the officials involved with. 
That issue would have been something that James Buwalda would have spoken to David Cunliffe about personally. He would have said to David Cunliffe: “Minister I have here the proposed terms of reference.” and I can just imagine David Cunliffe saying to James Buwalda: “Oh no James. I don’t want to see those. Don’t. I want to be able to say that surely this is just an employment matter. Don’t show me the terms of reference.” It defies credibility when a Minister is told an investigation involves the head of Immigration New Zealand for the Minister to say: “I have no interest in seeing the terms of reference.”; it has to be untrue. 
I will take us forward a further 4 months. This time it is Graham Fortune; James Buwalda has gone along with many other senior people in the Department of Labour. That is a scandal in itself—the number of people churned through that outfit. This time it is the acting chief executive who makes the same call and asks to see David Cunliffe Minister of Immigration. Graham Fortune comes across this time with the Oughton report in his hand. The first finding of the Oughton report that Graham Fortune would have had to tell David Cunliffe about was that there were in fact serious outcomes in respect of immigration policy which David Oughton uncovered. People who should have got residence did not. The reason why they did not get residence under the special residual Pacific access quota for Kiribati was because some unlawful decisions were made involving the family of the workforce deputy secretary the head of the Immigration Service. Graham Fortune would have also told the Minister that David Oughton recommended that this has to be dealt with and the only way this can be dealt with—because it is an exception to policy—is for the Minister to take it on and deal with it. 
It is not credible for us to believe that David Cunliffe said to Graham Fortune the acting chief executive of the Department of Labour: “Look Graham I don’t want to hear about this. For goodness’ sake this is just an employment matter. Surely you can find a way of dealing with these people who missed out on getting residence without having to involve me. I realise under the law it’s only me who can make an exception to policy but surely there’s a way. Just go away and deal with it. Just go and bury it.” That is what this Labour Government and David Cunliffe expect us to believe. This is the Oughton report in my hand here and the very first finding in the cover letter from David Oughton to Graham Fortune spells out that there is a matter that has to be attended to and that the only person who can attend to it is the Minister himself which the Minister would have known. The Minister took no— 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: Stop making it up! 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: I ask Lianne Dalziel to read the Oughton report. It makes it very clear that there is a special treatment required for the people who have missed out because Mary Anne Thompson’s family got unlawful decisions in its favour. The only person who can make exceptions to policy is the Minister and the Minister swept these things under the carpet.