Job permit for dialysis patient wrong, says Peters

By FRANCESCA MOLD and MARTIN JOHNSTON

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has accused the Government of performing administrative "gymnastics" in rearranging the immigration status of a Tuvaluan overstayer so he can get expensive kidney dialysis treatment.

And in another development in the dialysis controversy, it was revealed yesterday that Auckland health authorities are giving state-financed dialysis to four patients who would be ineligible under a new Government policy restricting long-term medical treatment for foreigners.

The patients' treatment will continue because it began before the policy came into effect.

Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel intervened in the Tuvaluan case this week when Senee Niusila's illegal immigrant status meant treatment for his life-threatening kidney condition was about to be stopped.

She granted him a two-year temporary work permit to give him time to apply for permanent residency.

Mr Niusila, who has been overstaying for five years, is eligible for residency because he married a Cook Islander with New Zealand rights in 2001.

He also has a month-old New Zealand-born child.

Mr Peters, who has campaigned vigorously on immigration issues, said it was wrong for Mr Niusila to be given a work permit when he was clearly unable to work.

"How can an overstayer be called a worker ... when he has no qualifications to fulfil that role in the foreseeable future?" he asked in Parliament yesterday.

The man has worked in New Zealand since he arrived on a visitor's permit in 1998.

But his kidney condition has deteriorated to the point where he needs hospital care.

Mr Peters asked how many New Zealanders were on waiting lists and might die because of the money that would go to treating Mr Niusila.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said Mr Niusila had arrived in the country when Mr Peters was Deputy Prime Minister. He had clearly stayed illegally here since that time.

"The leader of NZ First may well relish going in and pulling the plug on someone's machine in those circumstances. The minister [Lianne Dalziel] didn't."

Helen Clark said Mr Niusila had been invited by the Associate Immigration Minister, Damien O'Connor, to "regularise" his immigration status last year because his marriage made him eligible.

But it appeared he did not receive that advice and thought his appeal for help had been turned down.

Tuvalu's Prime Minister, Saufatu Sopoanga, wrote to Helen Clark urging her to grant Mr Niusila permanent residency "because of the problems he's having".

"He has worked in New Zealand on farms and various places and made contributions to the economy," said Mr Sopoanga.

"He cannot be treated in Tuvalu if he's brought back. We don't have those medicines, we don't have those [dialysis] machines yet."

Mr Sopoanga suggested that dialysis for Tuvaluan patients should be financed from the country's New Zealand foreign aid budget of about $2 million a year, and he urged New Zealand to reconsider its new policy on dialysis for foreign patients.

Auckland District Health Board spokeswoman Megan Richards confirmed yesterday that four patients were receiving dialysis treatment which they would no longer be eligible for under the new policy.

"They began end-stage renal dialysis before the guidelines were issued to us.

"The decision to continue treating them was made as a result of a separate set of guidelines on what happens to these people. It was under instruction we continue their treatment, having started it."

She said the board - which expects a $55 million deficit this year - wrote off about $1.8 million a year in unpaid debts for treating ineligible foreigners, including kidney patients.

A Health Ministry spokesman said between 12 and 20 ineligible foreign patients a year attended hospitals needing kidney dialysis.