Gerry Brownlee MP
National Party State Services Spokesman
24 April 2008
Silence on immigration probe not encouraging
National Party State Services spokesman Gerry Brownlee says the deafening silence from the State Services Commission
about its inquiry into serious immigration claims is not encouraging.
“There has been no response to a challenge laid down yesterday for the commission to detail what it is actually looking
at, after Commissioner Mark Prebble announced what appear to be extraordinarily narrow terms of reference.”
He will not examine what prompted the whole mess, but rather how the department subsequently handled a secret report
into serious claims levelled at Immigration boss Mary-Anne Thompson.
“Dr Prebble believes that excuses him from the conflict of having worked closely with one of the central characters in
this whole case in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Dr Thompson.
“But how will he be able to decide that the secret report was handled appropriately if he’s not looking at what prompted
that report and the scale of alleged misbehaviour?
“Dr Prebble should step aside so the State Services Commission can properly examine those aspects.
“If something was not right, the public deserve to know.”
ENDS