Awkward questions for Immigration boss

If anyone else had been caught using their influence to get family members into the country, observers say, they would have been sacked immediately. But Mary Anne Thompson has friends in high places. Tony Wall reports.

When Anne Thompson came down from the ninth floor of the Beehive to head up the Immigration Service, she didn't waste any time using her influence to get her husband's family into the country. Official documents show that within just a couple of months of taking up the top job, Thompson was firing off emails to the NZIS office in Suva asking for advice on getting family in Kiribati to New Zealand, breaking her own code of conduct.

It was December 2004, Christmas was fast approaching and, in an email to an immigration official, Thompson made it clear that the matter was urgent.

"We would like them to stay with us for three months for a significant family function, and then return to their families," she wrote, adding "my husband and I are flying to Nadi to meet them (a surprise for them)."

The Fiji-based official, whose name is blanked out in documents released under the Official Information Act, was only too eager to help, arranging visa waivers, usually reserved for emergencies. He even provided his mobile and home numbers in case the family ran into any trouble on arrival in Fiji.

About four months later, Thompson was at it again, asking for assistance to get more family members to New Zealand. "My preference would be a visa waiver, given the certainty of [names deleted] returning back to Kiribati and given that they will live with me and our family," she wrote.

She also complained about delays with the last trip. "I might travel to Nadi to surprise them but also to deal with the airport staff who did give us a hard time last time. The Nadi lot seemed pretty hopeless to us and the customs people in Auckland could not find your loading on [the computer] so we all had to step aside and spend time in the waiting lounge used for seeking asylum."

Despite Thompson's assurances that the relatives were only visiting for a short time, they appear to have stayed on, and, with her help, applied for residency despite not being eligible. This was despite Thompson being warned by her boss not to get involved in applications involving family members.

Thompson's links to Kiribati (pronounced Kiribas), go back at least 20 years, at which time she was married to a diplomat posted to the nation, which is comprised of 32 atolls straddling the equator and near the international dateline.

She was well known on the main atoll, Tarawa, as she often sang with a local band. After her first husband died, she hooked up with a government driver, Baerauti, and they later married and moved to New Zealand.

Thompson, 53, was born in Wellington to Romanian immigrant parents. She gained an MA in international policy economics from Victoria University and a PhD from the London School of Economics.

She became chief economist at the Ministry of Maori Affairs in 1990 and later became the chief Crown negotiator for the Ngai Tahu treaty claim. She joined Treasury and in 1997 headed up then-treasurer Winston Peters' economics advisory team.

Under the current Labour government she was director of the policy advisory group in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, later becoming the department's acting chief executive.

In other words, she was a serious policy wonk, but had no experience of running a government department. So it came as a surprise to staff when she was announced as the new Labour Department deputy secretary in charge of the immigration division in late 2004.

At first, one senior department insider says, it was assumed that she was untouchable because of her links to Prime Minister Helen Clark, but then another story circulated that in fact Clark wanted Thompson out of her office because she did not get on with Clark's chief of staff, Heather Simpson.

Coinciding with Thompson's arrival was a move to give the Immigration Service a broader role, more in tune with the department's aim of ensuring people with the appropriate skills and talent were available for the workforce. Part of this was the introduction in 2002 of a new immigration Pacific Access Category (PAC), making it easier for thousands of people from island nations, including Kiribati, to move to New Zealand to work and study.

"Mary Anne has always positioned herself as the great brown hope," the insider says.

"Her career has been around supposed links with those communities."

A new Pacific division was created, and according to the source, worked to its own agenda.

"There's always been this view that they've been favoured, privileged, the rules don't apply to them, which gets up people's noses."

Sarah Flesher, the former second in charge of the Pacific division's Manukau branch, a Maori now living in Perth, says: "I believe there was a big move to get as many Pacific Islanders into the country as possible, and as many Pacific Island staff in the branch as possible."

On November 16, 2005, an application for permanent residency by Kiribati citizen Kauri Katekeimoa, Thompson's nephew, and his wife and child, arrived at the Manukau branch. After entering the country earlier that year with his aunt's help, Katekeimoa had been issued with a temporary work permit, due to expire in February 2006.

The residency application appeared to have been hand-delivered, as it had not been routed through the Palmerston North branch which was usually the case. The application was made under the PAC "residual quota", which had expired on March 31 of that year and was full.

The form had been filled out by Thompson, and according to Flesher, she had even signed the cheque covering the $650 application fee.

Flesher says she told the branch manager, Nancy Sandoy, that the application was outside the timeframe. Sandoy said the application should be processed, but said she would make a call, Flesher says. According to Flesher, about a week later Mai Malaulau, the Pacific division director based in Wellington, appeared in the office, brought the file to her desk and said: "Put it in the system, there are slots available in the grid."

Flesher did, but when she was later asked to sign off on the application, she refused, and gave a copy of the file to an office auditor. The matter was then forwarded to Labour Department chiefs and an inquiry ordered.

The family had their residency permits issued in March 2006. They had earlier been granted residency in principle, but had forgotten to sign some forms. When the signed forms arrived back in Manukau, they were accompanied by a handwritten note by Thompson.

Justice secretary David Oughton launched an investigation, interviewing Thompson, Malaulau, Sandoy, Flesher and two other staff members.

A heavily censored copy of Oughton's report, with all the names blanked out, was released to media after One News broke the story last month.

An official, who the Sunday Star-Times understands is Sandoy, admits that she directed the application be processed, but did not have the valid authority to do so. She told Oughton she "was not aware of the significance of the closing date for applications... and did not appreciate the effect of not processing applications in date order of receipt where numerical quotas apply."

Flesher says Sandoy lost her immigration warrant for a couple of months but kept her job. Malaulau denied to Oughton that she instructed the application be processed, and Oughton has taken her at her word.

Thompson admitted to Oughton that her signature on the forms "could be construed as having influenced staff at the Manukau branch to treat the application other than strictly on its merits".

However, Oughton clears her in his report, stating "I am satisfied the deputy secretary, after assisting the applicant to complete the form... did not in any way become involved or attempt to influence the treatment of the application".

The matter would probably have never come to light, if not for One News, which was tipped off and fought for documents, including Thompson's emails, under the Official Information Act.

Flesher believes there was a deliberate attempt to hush the case up, and she was not allowed a copy of Oughton's report.

Thompson and her colleagues are now under investigation again, this time by the States Services Commission, but her connections have already caused a snag State Services Commissioner Mark Prebble is an old colleague from the prime minister's office. National's Lockwood Smith wants him to stand aside Prebble says he will delegate the inquiry to staff but report it to ministers himself.

In the meantime, Thompson's charmed life continues.

"I can't believe she's kept her job," Flesher says. "If it had been a staff member like myself, I would have been down the road."

The story so far

October 2004: Mary Anne Thompson appointed boss of Immigration Service. December 2004: Thompson emails officials in Fiji, asking for "assistance" in getting family in Kiribati to New Zealand. April 2005: Thompson emails officials again, asking for help with other family members.

November 2005: One family, having never left despite entering on visitor's visa, apply for residency. Thompson fills out the form and pays the fee.

March 2006: Family granted New Zealand residency ahead of other applicants, despite their application arriving too late.

July 2007: Justice secretary David Oughton provides report to Thompson's boss, titled Review of Apparently Unlawful Immigration Decision, clearing her of attempting to influence the decision.

April, 2008: One News breaks details of the case, new inquiry ordered.

- © Fairfax NZ News