Smith Lockwood: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Smith Lockwood: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:634;Page:6155] 
2.  
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
 to the  
Minister of Immigration 
: Does he still rely on the Ingram report because it is an authoritative comprehensive report written by a Queen’s Counsel as he confirmed to the House on Wednesday 30 August 2006? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Minister of Immigration) 
: 
 I still believe that it would be inappropriate to question the integrity of a Queen’s Counsel who has produced a report based on the information available to him. 
Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith 
: How wise is the Minister to rely on the Ingram report when Noel Ingram states: “I have found no evidence to support an allegation that Mr Siriwan or Ms Phanngarm were promised work in New Zealand.” when Sunan Siriwan’s sworn affidavit states: “Taito told me while I was at his house at Mangere that if I come to Samoa to work as a tiler at his house at Afiomalu he will get me back to New Zealand with a work permit.”? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: As has been noted to this House there is clearly a conflict of evidence and that matter will need to be investigated by the New Zealand Police. 
Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith 
: How wise is the Minister to rely on the Ingram report when Noel Ingram QC concluded that “the evidence does not support a finding that Mr Field knew that Mr Siriwan was working on his house at the time he wrote that letter.”—the letter Mr Field wrote to the Associate Minister of Immigration Damien O’Connor on 18 May 2005—when Mr Siriwan’s sworn affidavit states: “Taito said to me … he will give me WS$200 per week for food and I could live at his new house in Afiomalu where I was to work.” and that “Taito had come to the house at Afiomalu and he saw me on my knees sanding and levelling the floor to have the floor ready for tiling. … This was approximately the end of March 2005.”? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: Those are matters that the police will no doubt investigate. I note that Mr Siriwan had the opportunity to speak to the inquiry and did not make those allegations then. 
Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith 
: How wise is the Minister to rely on the Ingram report when the Ingram report failed to uncover the facts contained in Mr Siriwan’s sworn affidavit that in addition to the “four months to put tiles in Taito’s house” he was “asked to do painting in the whole inside of Taito’s house. This took two months.” and that as well as confirming that he was never paid for the 4 months’ tiling work he said: “I confirm that I was never paid for this painting job”? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: I can confirm that it would be an error of judgment for the member to place reliance upon contested evidence when the matter is still under investigation by the New Zealand Police. 
Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith 
: How wise is the Minister to rely on the information in the Ingram report when Noel Ingram failed to uncover the fact not only that Taito Phillip Field had done a deal with Mr Siriwan to go to work on Mr Field’s house in Samoa for no pay but also that in respect of paying for his air ticket to Samoa Mr Siriwan’s sworn affidavit states that he went to Taito’s house and gave him $400 towards his air fare and “I told Taito that I had already spent $360 to buy silicon and other water proofing materials to take with me to Samoa for Taito’s house.”? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: It would be an error of judgment for the member to describe as fact matters that are the subject of a conflict of evidence. To allege so would be to undermine the police inquiry and to question the integrity of a Queen’s Counsel. 
Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith 
: How wise is the Minister to rely on the Ingram report when Mr Sunan Siriwan’s sworn affidavit states: “we have not been free to speak the truth about our situation. … I have never been free to speak out. I was told what to say to the lawyer who came from New Zealand to talk to me.”? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: Those recycled press clippings are now old news but— 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Please be seated. Again we are falling into barracking. The Minister is entitled to be heard and other members in the House are entitled to hear him. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: I repeat that those matters are the subject of a police inquiry. The member may well ask why the person alleging those matters feels free to speak now when he did not feel so free earlier. 
Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith 
: I seek leave to table the sworn affidavit of Sunan Siriwan dated the 26th day of September 2006 and sworn in front of a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Samoa. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.