New Zealand Parliamentary Debate

General Debate [4426]

was contained in Taito Phillip Field's letter, asking whether Mr Field had actually made that decision and whether he was aware of all the information they were aware of about Mr Siriwan working for Taito Phillip Field. That same day, 9 June, here in New Zealand, Mr Tavita from the Department of Labour rang the Minister's office at 2. 41 p.m. to tell the office about the fact that Mrs Field had been waving that letter around in Apia, and about what had been claimed. But the Minister claims he did not know anything about it.

What is more, just a few days before that on 27 May, a compliance officer who had actually been involved in deporting Ms Phanngarm from New Zealand emailed the Minister's office to warn the Minister's office about those issues. The officer phoned the Minister's office on 31 May, after receiving even more information about what Mr Siriwan was up to at Taito Phillip Field's house in Samoa. That all happened well before the Minister made his decision on 7 June. It is not credible for the Minister to claim he knew nothing of this, at all.

But what makes this even more questionable, and what makes the cloud of corruption even thicker, is that a bloke called Keith Williams, who once employed Mr Siriwan illegally here in New Zealand and who went to Samoa to work with Mr Siriwan on Phillip Field's house, told an immigration consultant that Taito Phillip Field had talked to Ministers Swain and Goff the day they visited Taito Phillip Field's house in Samoa. The Ministers do admit they met the tiler, Mr Siriwan. That guy, Keith Williams, refused to talk to the Ingram inquiry, so Noel Ingram, quite properly, had to ignore that evidence. But why would Mr Williams say that Taito Phillip Field had told him he had had a talk to the Minister? It was either Mr Swain or Mr O'Connor; we cannot blame people for getting Ministers muddled up, because no one knows exactly who the relevant Minister is. But he claims he talked to Mr Swain and that he had got an undertaking that after Siriwan had been out of New Zealand for about 3 months he would then be granted a work visa back in New Zealand. That was what happened!

Hon PHIL GOFF( Minister of Defence):

All I do is invite that member to have the courage to make whatever inference he wants to make, outside of this House, and I will pull the rug out from under his feet so quickly he will not know which country he is in. I invite the member to have the courage to do that, but I know that member will not have the courage because there is no substance. It is part of a smear campaign. The member ought to be ashamed of himself, for this reason. He was a member of Parliament who went up and down the country in 1990, promising to repeal student fees and promising to resign if he did not do so.

Gerry Brownlee

: I seek leave of the House to table the Ingram report, which makes it clear that the Hon Phil Goff did visit the Thai tiler at Mr Field's house in Samoa.

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER( H V Ross Robertson)

: Can I just say that frivolous interjections- Interruption The member is a very experienced member. He knows that frivolous interjections or points of order designed to break up a 5- minute speech are out of order.

Hon PHIL GOFF

: I just add for Gerry Brownlee that if he-

Gerry Brownlee

: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker.

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER( H V Ross Robertson)

: I have ruled, Mr Brownlee.

Gerry Brownlee

: That does not mean that it is an appropriate ruling. When is it considered to be frivolous to ask for the leave of the House?

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER( H V Ross Robertson)

: We have 5- minute speeches here. The member is experienced enough to know that he can seek that leave at the end of a 5- minute speech.