Smith Lockwood: General Debate 
Smith Lockwood: General Debate 
[Volume:647;Page:15942] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 If Television New Zealand (TVNZ) had not made public the issues surrounding the assistance given to family members by the head of Immigration New Zealand Mary Anne Thompson nothing would have changed. Ministers in this Labour Government were content to have what David Oughton in his report calls an “Unlawful Immigration Decision”—that is at best—and what some people might call corruption in Immigration New Zealand. Ministers were happy to simply cover that up. If TVNZ had not made the issue public and if questions had not been asked in this Parliament would Mary Anne Thompson still be head of Immigration New Zealand? Of course she would. Were Ministers happy for that to be the case? Of course they were. Ministers were prepared to simply hide unlawful decision-making in Immigration New Zealand from the public. 
That is outrageous. Whichever way we look at it it is absolutely outrageous that it takes our media or television—and in this case Television New Zealand—to actually put information in front of the public after a battle with the department to get this information which involved the Ombudsmen. And the information was finally released on Thursday evening just before Easter just before Good Friday. Is that an example of a Government that wants to be open and transparent about this information when it dumps it out on the evening of the Thursday just before Good Friday just before Easter? What hypocrisy! What absolute hypocrisy it is to claim— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: Mr Assistant Speaker I am not accusing any member of that; I am referring to this Government. How else do you view that Mr Assistant Speaker? Oh I cannot bring you into the debate—forgive me. What is so appalling is that if this had not been made public Ministers David Cunliffe and Clayton Cosgrove would have been perfectly happy for nothing to happen. If they could have kept it secret they would have. That is why Ministers are accountable here. Dr Michael Cullen and Clayton Cosgrove have claimed that it is just an employment matter but Ministers are responsible for Government policy and for the outcomes of Government policy. 
In this case the Government policy is that there is a Pacific residual quota available for people from Kiribati and other Pacific nations. That policy has some constraints on it. People have to make an application within a certain time frame and a certain number of places are available. That was the policy. The outcome following the unlawful decision-making within Immigration New Zealand was that people who applied legally within the time frame and people who would have fallen within the 75 places available missed out on those places. Some people who qualified under Government policy missed out on getting residence and people who did not qualify under Government policy got residence. That is clearly the outcome of Government policy being applied wrongly and the Minister is accountable for that. Whatever way Dr Michael Cullen tries to wiggle on this matter—and members know how Dr Cullen tries to—[ 
Interruption 
] 
Hon Member 
: Slippery! 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH 
: Is that what they say? I do not care what term is used; whatever way Dr Cullen tries to weasel his way out of this the fact is that Government policy was one set of principles and the outcome following unlawful decisions in Immigration New Zealand was another set of results that were at odds with Government policy and the Minister is accountable for that. It is all spelt out in the Oughton report called I might say  
Review of Apparently Unlawful Immigration Decision 
. That is what David Oughton called it—an unlawful immigration decision. This Oughton report shows not just inappropriate behaviour by Mary Anne Thompson. OK she has stepped down now and there are all sorts of clouds around that; I do not want to address that today. This report shows that a number of senior officials in Immigration New Zealand were involved in this unlawful decision-making producing outcomes that are wrong and not Government policy. The Minister is accountable for that but nothing has happened to these people. Although the names are blanked out in the report it is clear who these people are. And Ministers will be held to account.