Ombudsman gets final say over 'lie in unison' memo

By HELEN TUNNAH

Ombudsman Mel Smith says he will complete an "independent" inquiry into whether Immigration Service officials deliberately kept a memo from him which said staff had agreed to "lie in unison" over the arrest of a suspected terrorist.

His report will follow the release yesterday of an internal Department of Labour investigation which cleared staff of any collusion to lie - or to deceive the Ombudsman after he was told the memo did not even exist.

Opposition parties yesterday said the internal report was a "whitewash" and insults flew in Parliament during a snap debate.

Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel told Winston Peters "to stick to water at lunchtime" when the New Zealand First leader called the report an "in-house snow job".

Mr Peters replied: "Well, I'll tell you what I will stick to - not taking Valium like you do. Not being a person that's having a problem handling stress like you do."

The Ombudsman said that although the department's report was of some use, his inquiry had to be independent.

He would not comment on the details of department chief executive James Buwalda's report, which said only that media adviser Ian Smith had shown poor judgment in making the "lie in unison" claim.

Mr Smith is now facing disciplinary action for writing the remark on an internal media log, but he remains working for the Immigration Service.

He was not dealing with "external" media matters, said Dr Buwalda, but he would not say what Mr Smith was doing or if he was still helping to decide what material had to be released to the public under the law.

Mr Smith's memo was written on December 17 after a Herald editorial criticised the lack of information released about Algerian Ahmed Zaoui.

He wrote: "I was let down badly. Everyone had agreed to lie in unison but all the others caved in and I was the only one left singing the original song."

Dr Buwalda said Mr Smith was being "sarcastic and humorous".

But the report also showed officials initially refused to hunt for the memo for the Ombudsman because they thought the National Party's request for it was either "frivolous or vexatious" and might "be considered to be trivial".