[Sitting date: 02 December 2014. Volume:702;Page:8. Text is subject to correction.]

9. KELVIN DAVIS (Labour—Te Tai Tokerau) to the Minister of Corrections : Does he stand by all his statements from Question Time on Wednesday, 26 November?

Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA (Minister of Corrections): Yes.

Kelvin Davis : Does he stand by his statement that Phillip Smith’s obtaining of a passport was legitimate?

Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA : Yes. My understanding of the Passports Act is that prisoners do not automatically lose the right to be issued with a passport. As I have already said in this House, that decision is a matter for the Minister of Internal Affairs.

Kelvin Davis : Why, then, does he believe the passport was issued legitimately when Minister Dunne has said it would not have been approved, and section 4 of the Passports Act provides that passports should not be issued to people under a sentence that requires them to remain in New Zealand?

Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA : With respect to the first part of that question, you will have to ask Peter Dunne that.

Kelvin Davis : When the police said that Mr Smith had help in obtaining his passport, was the help they were referring to from the Department of Corrections in that it apparently legitimately helped him obtain a passport?

Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA : I do not agree with what the member has just said in terms of what the police have said. [Interruption]

Mr SPEAKER : Order! I am going to ask the member to repeat the question.

Kelvin Davis : When the police said Smith had help in obtaining his passport, was the help they were referring to from the Department of Corrections in that he could apparently legitimately obtain a passport?

Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA : No. The Department of Corrections did not help him obtain a passport.

Kelvin Davis : Will his utter confusion about the legitimacy of Smith’s passport be one of matters looked into in the review of the failures of interdepartmental communication?

Mr SPEAKER : Very marginal, but I will allow the Minister to answer.

Hon Peseta SAM LOTU-IIGA : As I have said in this House already, the Government inquiry will deal with matters between agencies.

ENDS

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