O'Connor to face visa questions

An immigration agent at the centre of allegations about Mangere MP Taito Phillip Field is urging police to extend their investigation to scrutinise all Mr Field's immigration applications to Cabinet minister Damien O'Connor.

Mr Field was placed on leave from Parliament on Thursday after police decided to investigate claims against the MP, including that he accepted free or under-paid work by Thai overstayers in return for getting them visas to stay in New Zealand.

Thai-speaking Auckland immigration agent Tim Spooner, who originally tipped off the police about the issue in February last year, yesterday urged detectives to remember that Mr Field could not have obtained the visas without the Associate Immigration Minister at the time, Mr O'Connor.

Mr O'Connor, now Minister of Corrections and Tourism, directed officials in June last year to grant visas to Thai tiler Sunan Siriwan and his partner Aumporn ("Luck") Phanngarm. Mr Field had made representations to Mr O'Connor about the couple since February, and Mr Siriwan tiled two houses belonging to Mr Field's family in Samoa between March and November.

A report by Auckland QC Noel Ingram in July listed four other Thai migrants who were granted work permits on Mr O'Connor's directions after representations from Mr Field.

Three of them, including the husband of the fourth one, visited Samoa in May-June 2005 and were alleged to have worked on Mr Field's house - although Dr Ingram could not confirm that.

Mr Spooner said Mr O'Connor's decisions in all five cases appeared to be outside normal immigration policies.

"Since the issuing of the report, I have had numerous calls from clients in cases where the minister refused to intervene despite the cases having much greater merit than these cases," he said.

Mr O'Connor said he would co-operate with the police investigation, as he had with Dr Ingram.

"I absolutely reject any suggestions that I have acted in any way inappropriately," he said.

The police officer leading the investigation, Detective Superintendent Malcolm Burgess, declined to comment yesterday, but police are known to have been tracking Mr Field's links with Thai overstayers for the past 18 months.

Senior NZ police chiefs, who were in Samoa for official talks, met Mr Siriwan last year on a visit to Mr Field's house with Mr Field and cabinet ministers Phil Goff and Paul Swain.


Police Association president Greg O'Connor said the police would not have any more powers to compel witnesses to give evidence than Dr Ingram had, but they would be able to get search warrants and would have far more resources.

"The higher-ranked you are as a police officer, the better your ability to harness resources. Detective Superintendent is the biggest investigator."

Auckland University associate professor Bill Hodge said there was no record of any previous charges against an MP or anyone else under clause 103 of the Crimes Act, which provides a maximum penalty of seven years in jail for bribery or corruption of an MP, since an earlier version of the act was passed in 1912.