The Field inquiry: Family forgive and forget house deal

Samoan leaders want Taito Phillip Field to return as a minister. Picture / Mark Mitchell

A Samoan family whose house was bought and sold by Mangere MP Taito Phillip Field for $136,000 more than he paid for it have buried the hatchet and are willing to give the MP a second chance.

Patrick Cole, 55, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, and his three sons sold their house at 51 Church St, Otahuhu, to Mr Field in May 2004 to stop it going to a forced mortgagee sale. Mr Field paid them $259,000.

Yesterday's report by Dr Noel Ingram, QC, said Mr Field estimated he spent between $17,896 and $20,878 on renovating the house before selling it again 15 months later for $395,000.

The report found that Mr Field paid "a fair market price" and that the subsequent increase was "in line with market trends".

Mr Cole's son Simon Tupou, 23, said the family now lived in a rented Housing New Zealand home and wanted to "move on" from the loss of their own home.

"We are willing to accept it. We have given him a second chance," he said. "I have buried the hatchet now, in that I'm forgiving and forgetting about it."

Samoan community leaders urged Prime Minister Helen Clark to give Mr Field back his former jobs as Associate Minister of Justice, Social Development and Pacific Island Affairs.

The secretary of the Auckland Samoan Advisory Council, Teleiai Sua Edwin Puni, said Mr Field thought he was doing the right thing by giving work to Thai immigrants who sought his help, and any errors of judgment by the MP were human.

"People do make mistakes in some of their judgments ... He has been cleared and as a senior MP who has been in Parliament a long period, he should get a ministerial position in the Cabinet."

The chief editor of the Samoa Times and secretary of the Labour Party's Pacific Islands sector council, Papaliitele Lafulafu Peo, said Samoans expressed their thanksgiving on Auckland's Samoan radio stations when Dr Ingram's report came out yesterday.

"We say, 'Thank God for the outcome'. We are happy.

"I have been to Phillip Field's office many times and saw him work hard, not only for the Samoan community but for other Pacific Island nationalities and Asians, which many MPs are not doing.

"I am looking towards hearing Helen Clark reinstate his ministerial positions."

However, Tim Spooner, the immigration consultant who originally tipped off police that Mr Field was sending Thai tiler Sunan Siriwan to Samoa to tile his new house, said Dr Ingram's report was "a whitewash".

He was impressed by the detailed questions Dr Ingram had asked when he was interviewed.

But he said the lawyer's inquiry was hamstrung by the Government's refusal to pay legal fees for key witnesses such as Auckland builder Keith Williams, who went to Samoa with Mr Siriwan and was present when Mr Field and ministerial colleagues Phil Goff and Paul Swain visited the house where the tiler was working.