Ministers alerted early re Field

NZPA has reported the Department of Labour has confirmed that they raised concerns with two ministers about both the number of visa applications made by Labour MP Taito Phillip Field on behalf of failed asylum seekers, and how many were being approved.

These concerns were raised before allegations of corruption were made public in Septemer 2005. The conclusion is that despite having their top officials officially warn them that Field was having so many decisions sucessfully over-turned, neither the Minister nor Associate Minister took action.

They also confirmed six or seven NZIS staff knew about the Thai tiler working on Field’s home in Samoa, and that they all thought the Associate Minister knew when he granted the permit.

Finally they also contradict the former Associate Minister who said he made moves to reverse the permit in June after he heard of the work on Field’s home. In fact nothing was done until September after allegations were made public.

I think this calls further into question the Ingram Report. To be honest I am a loss to see how Ingram could have concluded O’Connor did not know of Siriwan working on Field’s home when there is compelling evidence to the contrary. I’m also disappointed Ingram did not ask or mention about these early warnings from officials about Field’s activities.