Thompson's exit puts public service back in the spotlight

There is a certain irony in the fact that the person sent in to sort out the awful Immigration Service ends up resigning under a cloud surrounding her own performance.

Dr Mary Anne Thompson - or should that be Ms? - was a high-flier in this government, marked out early for promotion, close to the Prime Minister, she spent time in both the Office of Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Treasury as an advisor.

Indeed she was so highly rated she was in charge of the DPMC for a while, and worked under former State Services Commissioner Mark Prebble when he was at the Treasury.

Thompson was seen as a government Dr fixit under both this administration and the last National one.

Her most recent task involved cracking heads at the dysfunctional Immigration Service, where she was brought in to stem the flood of bad news over the Thai visas scam and the rather porous nature of New Zealand's borders with regards to the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's henchmen.

I remember going to her first press conference when she was appointed head of immigration and I was extremely impressed. Thompson had a no-nonsense attitude. She was very smart, knew her portfolio, was articulate, and didn't appear to tolerate fools.

The mind boggles, therefore, that she would have even considered for a minute putting forward members of her own extended family for residency applications, signing them off, and paying the application fees.

Let's give her the benefit of the doubt here and assume that Thompson applied no pressure to officials to sign them off or used her office inappropriately in any way. But put yourself in the shoes of an immigration officer. An application lands on your desk. It's after the close-off date and therefore inapplicable but it's signed by your boss. What are you going to do, turn it down?

Thompson was clever enough and equipped with good enough political antennae to know this was a bad look, and that's why she was told off when her boss, James Bulwalda, found out. The story was big enough for then Immigration Minister David Cunliffe to be informed, and for an inquiry to be launched.

That the whole thing was then swept under the carpet was a disgrace, and a sham for which the government must take some responsibility. Hiding behind "privacy'' arguments and the provisions of State Sector Act which forbid ministers interfering in employment matters is pretty farcical. It's never stopped them before, either.

At the very least the government could have demanded that the inquiry into Thompson's actions be made public, or threaten to make it public themselves if the Labour Department refused to. Instead it has sat by and watched as the department fought tooth and nail to avoid the Official Information Act requests made by media trying to get to the bottom of the story.

Even yesterday, Cunliffe was trying to wriggle out of admitting to reporters just how long he had known about the cloud over Thompson's employment. He was then undone in Parliament by Acting Prime Minister Michael Cullen, who admitted the Cunliffe had known since April last year.

The current minister, Clayton Cosgrove, meanwhile claims he only found out about it in December when he was briefed by officials. It's amazing that his close friend and colleague David Cunliffe had never mentioned it.

This wouldn't be so bad if it didn't involve a department with a history of obfuscation bordering on outright dishonesty. Immigration has a record of blocking media requests for information. In 2003 its then communications manager Ian Smith made his infamous "lie in unison'' comment. 

Smith who wrote on an official document that he was badly let down by his colleagues because "everyone had agreed to lie in unison but all the others caved in and I was the only one left singing the original song''.

Smith later said he was only joking but the "joke'' revealed a lot about the mentality in the department - a mentality Thompson was sent in to change.

Instead, she finds herself facing a police investigation for allegedly lying about her qualifications on her CV, plus another SSC inquiry into her actions and that of her department in general.

Perhaps one of the reasons the Government was so reluctant to bring this to the public's attention earlier is that at the time this was going on it was rather preoccupied with another high-profile case involving the public service - the Madeleine Setchell affair, which began in July last year.

That little fiasco claimed the head of Environment Ministry boss Hugh Logan and may have indirectly contributed to the decision of Prebble himself to retire from the SSC. Now, once again, the independence of the public service is under fire and, again, the SSC is investigating.  

The SSC could start making amends by revealing how much Thompson was paid to leave immediately, and then get on and finish its report with all due haste, rather than refusing to release any details of how long its investigation will take.