In May 2008, the then Prime Minister and the then Minister of Immigration asked me to carry out an inquiry into a range of integrity concerns arising out of Immigration New Zealand, which is part of the Department of Labour.
The request was in response to various concerns that had been discussed in the public domain. These included:
- the operations of Immigration New Zealand's Pacific Division and incidents involving certain senior personnel;
- the conduct of Mary Anne Thompson, the former Deputy Secretary (Workforce) and head of Immigration New Zealand; and
- how the concerns had been handled by others, including successive chief executives of the Department of Labour, the State Services Commissioners, and Ministers.
There were many different strands to the concerns, and in 2008 a number of separate reviews and investigations were beginning. The request to me sought a comprehensive review of events by an independent agency, so that Parliament and the public could be given an independent assessment of the way in which the sector had dealt with the concerns.
I am reporting my findings in two volumes:
- Volume 1 covers Immigration New Zealand's visa and permit decision-making and related issues; and
- Volume 2 covers the public sector recruitment processes involving Ms Thompson and the handling of recruitment-related concerns.