NZ to make sure those who have ministerial discretion
Nicola Willis. Today, we are told that the Minister of Immigration
has apologised to the PM.
He has apologised to the PM
for the terrible decision of giving
residency to a
convicted drug smuggler. Well, he
should apologise to New Zealand.
smuggler. Well, he should apologise
He should apologise to New Zealand for his failure of judgement and
care. He should apologise to
New Zealand for putting their
safety at risk. And he should apologise to
New Zealand for likely costing us
millions of dollars in
legal fees down the line. But,
Madam Speaker, has he
down the line. But, Madam Speaker,
of Immigration apologised to New Zealanders for
of Immigration apologised to New
has not. In fact, we have had the indignity of members
opposite congratulating
case, Minister Faafoi. Instead, we have seen a disgraceful blame
game being played. Blame the process.
Blame the officials. Blame the
judge.
Blame the officials. Blame the judge. Minister
Blame the officials. Blame the
the decision. The failure is his. This is his responsibility. When
ministers are appointed,
they are appointed to exercise the utmost
care in making decisions on
behalf of New Zealanders. on behalf of New
Zealanders. They are
appointed to positions of great responsibility
because we trust them to
exercise discretion and judgement on
our behalf. So let us consider
the judgement that was
applied in this case. We have the case of a
convicted criminal coming to New
Zealand on a false passport. He
engages in criminal activity. He is
convicted and sentenced for five
years for importing
illegal drugs. His case ends him up in
prison and then it comes to
Minister
deportation. What does Mr
seem really like the kind of guy that New Zealanders would
like
does is he intervenes to overturn the deportation order and grants
residency. And he does it, he
says, with careful consideration
in the words of the PM. Let me tell you
what the PM thinks counts as
careful consideration. He gave it
45 minutes. He did not read
the file. He did not ask the right
questions. He did not ask
for more information. He said this, is a simple one, 45
minutes, I'll get the letter out
by
Order! It's inappropriate for the member to say that the honourable
minister is about to have a
drink, OK. I'm sure it was a cup of
tea and I would not infer otherwise. What
he did was he leapt to judgement,
that's the challenge that I
have. Order! I made a
ruling. The member does not make a comment about
it. She can carry on if she
wants to. What he did was he leapt
to judgement. He didn't have the
judgement to see that
this was a case that required more
than 45 minutes consideration. This was
a case that required thorough
examination on behalf of
New Zealanders and he did not do it.
He examination
Zealanders and he did not do it. He had to weigh up the rights
of a convicted criminal
convicted criminal against the danger to the New Zealand public and
in weighing up those rights, who
dealer came up trumps. That's who came up trumps with this minister
at immigration. And today,
Mr Speaker, we have the great
revelation from the minister that
in future he'll take more time, he'll change his
approach, he'll do it a little
differently. Well, Mr Speaker, it is
too little, too late.
Trust an confidence in New
Zealand's immigration system has been damaged.
The reputation of good officials
here in Wellington has been damaged.
New Zealand's residency standards
have been compromised. It took
him 45 minutes to make the
decision, it's taken a month to review. It
will take years and years
to undo the damage and what are
we told today in this
the damage and what are we told
that it's simply a matter of fixing the process. Well you can't fix a
minister's judgement and that
is what is actually at fault today
because it does
not matter how tight the process is, it does not matter
how many steps there are in it, if
a how
how many steps there are in it, if a minister can't smell
a dog when one's right in front of
him, then New Zealanders
New Zealanders should not have to expect him to have a warrant.
This is the minister's failure. The
PM should hold him accountable. Members
opposite should be disgraced. New
Zealand has been let down once again
by
I call Kiritapu Allan.
a decision and made that a decision and made that
determination and made that
announcement to the media and to the
New Zealand public. At
announcement to the media and to the
in this Chamber the minister walked through his considerations both