Friends prepare rally for suspended MP

Supporters of suspended Labour MP Taito Phillip Field will hold a rally for him in Mangere today, although the MP is overseas.

A community committee supported by the MP's Labour electorate committee intends holding the rally from noon in the Mangere town centre carpark.

The event comes as the controversy over Mr Field's dealings with immigrants and others seeking his help, including an allegation that he was instrumental in falsifying a birth certification and his admission that he sometimes accepted money from constituents, has been largely eclipsed by other issues dogging the Government and National.

But National immigration spokesman Lockwood Smith said he was considering what to do with new information he claimed to have against Mr Field when Parliament reconvenes the week after next.

"If they [the Government] thought it was off the table, I have news for them and it ain't good," he said.

Mr Field was stood down on full pay last month while the police investigate allegations already made against him, which he denies.

Their investigation is at an early stage, and Dr Smith said he had yet to be asked to supply documents he had gathered about the case.

Rally organising committee member Josh Liava'a, a former police detective sergeant of Tongan descent who has known Mr Field since the late 1970s, said the MP had nothing to do with the event.

Mr Liava'a said it was a community-based exercise, aimed at showing the high regard in which Mr Field was held by Pacific people, for whom he had worked "unselfishly and with the utmost energy", as evidenced by his having the largest majority of any MP in New Zealand.

He said the former Cabinet minister had been subjected to allegations which began "as a trivial thing but turned into something monstrous."

The rally would include cultural performances and speeches by Pacific community leaders including prominent academics.

Mangere Labour electorate chairman Tasi Lauese said his committee had called an initial meeting to elect an organising group for the rally, but it had turned into a wider community exercise.

He understood Mr Field was attending a conference in Israel, which he believed might be a Christian-based event, but the MP had sent a message for today's event.

The MP's parliamentary executive assistant, Naomi Aliva, said he had gone overseas about a week ago on personal business and she was not at liberty to discuss his itinerary.

She expected him back the week after next.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Helen Clark said no comment was available from her as she was away on leave.