Locke Keith: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Locke Keith: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:637;Page:7631] 
7.  
KEITH LOCKE (Green) 
 to the  
Minister of Immigration 
: To what extent if any did the police threat assessment of Ahmed Zaoui an assessment criticised as “not well considered nor well constructed” in a 9 January 2007 report by Judge Ian Borrin of the Police Complaints Authority contribute to the Minister’s decision to rely on a security risk certificate applying to Algerian refugee Ahmed Zaoui? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Minister of Immigration) 
: 
 I was of course not privy to the briefing to the former Minister of Immigration by the Director of Security before the Minister’s decision to rely upon the security risk certificate. However I am advised that the police play no role in the statutory briefing process. In accordance with section 114E(3) of the Immigration Act 1987 the contents of that briefing must remain confidential. 
Keith Locke 
: Was it because the Minister in some way relied on the flawed police threat assessment against Mr Zaoui which falsely claimed that he was a senior member of the terrorist GIA group that the Minister’s department actually supported Mr Zaoui spending 10 months in solitary confinement in Paremoremo prison? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: My first answer applies equally to the second question. 
Keith Locke 
: In what way would the presence in New Zealand of Leila Zaoui and her four children prejudice the current review of the security risk certificate and why is the Minister so heartless in not allowing the family to be reunited at least while the very long-drawn-out review of Mr Zaoui’s status is completed and the Minister makes a decision? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: It is important that because there is a chance that the substantive decision in respect of Mr Zaoui will later come to my desk I do not now pre-empt the substance of that decision. Therefore I must live with the possibility of the perception of heartlessness in order to ensure that that decision is not prejudiced. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Would members please lower the level of chatter. It is very difficult to hear members sometimes. 
Keith Locke 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. My question specifically asked in what way the presence of Leila Zaoui and her children would prejudice the Minister’s decision. He did not answer how it would prejudice the decision he talked about when giving his answer. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: I think the Minister did in the context address the question. 
Peter Brown 
: Will the Minister confirm that when a security risk certificate is issued against a suspected terrorist he has no choice but to rely on that advice and that he has no influence over Ahmed Zaoui’s fate until the decision regarding the security risk certificate is reached by the SIS—unlike Mr Zaoui who does have a choice: he can seek assistance with documentation get on a plane and go tomorrow? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: I would not characterise the obligations on this Minister in the way that the member has just done. 
Peter Brown 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. That is a most unsatisfactory answer. I asked the Minister a specific question about the procedure and the limitations controlling the procedure. I think the Minister should give this House an answer. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Madam SPEAKER 
: I cannot hear what members are saying. Would the Minister please expand on his answer. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: To be more direct the member was wrong. 
Keith Locke 
: How much incompetence and bungling from various State agencies particularly the police and the SIS will it take in this long-drawn-out affair of 4 years going on 5 years before the Minister lifts the security risk certificate against Mr Zaoui; has the Minister given any consideration to the fact that the inspector-general’s term expires in June—that is before the hearing is even due to begin—and has he any contingency planning about what to do in that circumstance? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: Although I have no ministerial responsibility for the term of the inspector-general I have stated publicly previously that I share the concern of many New Zealanders that this process should be expedited as quickly as possible. 
Keith Locke 
: I seek leave to table a copy of the Police Complaints Authority report dated 9 January 2007 which is very critical of the police’s role— 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Keith Locke 
: I seek leave to table an Amnesty International statement of 24 April 2006 explaining the secret detention and torture that goes on in Algeria today which makes it impossible for Mr Zaoui to return there. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is objection. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. We seek to be more specific about these things. Mr Locke has just asked whether he can table a document outlining secret torture. Well if it is such a secret how come he has a document on it? 
Madam SPEAKER 
: The member knows that is not a point of order; however it has provoked another one. 
Keith Locke 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. The document here which I think Mr Brownlee could read as it is easily available talks about detainees in secret detention and about being tortured—secret detention and torture I tell Mr Brownlee. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Can we now move on? 
Keith Locke 
: I tried to table that document because there was a reference made by a member to Mr Zaoui being able to go home. I now seek leave to table from the  
New Zealand Herald  
of 9 February a statement where Mr Zaoui hotly disputes Mr Peter Brown’s assertion and says that he has no passport to enable him to return home. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is objection.