Video: Questions linger over Thompson caseKEY POINTS:
It is somewhat ironic that the safe pair of hands called in to head the Immigration Service because of her record in dealing with politically loaded matters ended up hoist by her own petard.
Yet yesterday Mary Anne Thompson resigned from her job within the Department of Labour
after media coverage over help she gave to relatives to get NZ residency.
And late last night, Prime Minister Helen Clark said the State Services Commission was referring aspects of the case to the police.
In an internal email advising staff of the resignation, Labour Department chief Chris Blake said that while it brought "a degree of closure" to the matter, he didn't expect it to end there.
"I expect public scrutiny will continue around this and wider organisational issues," he said.
He was right. Dr Thompson's departure - effective immediately with three months' salary - may stem the whispers around immigration office water coolers.
But it does not address why the Labour Department initially insisted everything had been dealt with and all was hunky dory despite the wider concerns raised in a report by former Secretary for Justice David Oughton about immigration staff ordering policy overrides in other cases.
Those matters - and whether Dr Thompson had overstepped the grey line of conflicts of interest - remain to be answered in the State Services Commission report under way.
Dr Thompson's resignation makes life easier both for the department and the Government, whose Immigration Minister, Clayton Cosgrove, has so far been clinging to the State Sector Act like a baby to a blanket.
That act requires ministers to keep out of employment issues and leave them to the chief executive. This has gone beyond an employment issue.
As well as wider concerns about whether the department treated the situation properly, there is another issue that is a matter for the minister, and that is the question of the residency permits themselves.
As they stand, the permits held by Dr Thompson's relatives from Kiribati appear to be in some kind of legal limbo land. They also remain vastly unfair to others who were equally deserving, but whose aunts' names don't have the same clout.
They were pushed through by a senior manager who did not have the power to do so and subsequently allowed to stand by the Labour Department. This is not the department's prerogative.
Under the Immigration Act only the Immigration Minister can grant residency to people who do not meet normal policies. At some point, the minister is surely going to have to look at those residency permits.
Whatever the facts, it was clear that it was untenable for Dr Thompson to keep her job. Hers was the face that fronted high-profile immigration decisions - including the refusal to give entry to Samoan Baby Miracle.
Her background in the Treasury, as an adviser to Winston Peters in the 1990s, and in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet had put her in senior roles.
As one observer noted, anyone who had dealt with Peters before should be able to spot a politically loaded situation from a mile off. Her resignation is a belated sign that she still can.
