Political Shenanigans.

24.2.08
I receive an email from the Labour Whips Office that appears was supposed to be sent to someone from MP Charles Chauvel’s (Opposition List MP for the Wairarapa) office, regarding our complaint and whether Mr Chauvel would look into the case given Mr Hayes attitude towards us.
The email says: (Verbatim – honestly – I am NOT making this up!)

local MP (John Hayes) to get some help, and found him to be rude and pretty insulting. [a friend] contacted me as I had said on my Facebook page that we were told by Mr Hayes that an MP’s job was “to Make Laws not act as a social worker of last resort”.(This is quoting an email from Helen to Mr Chauvel’s office)

This phrase alone suggests a slightly manic ‘…operates in a different perspective / time frame than most of us…” – that is palnet electorate speek for ..possible dingbat
I would reply with
sorry hayes is useless
ombudsman is correct point to place your concern
Charles unable to assist you further oin this matter ( ie; dont invite or leave space for her to enter in facebook that Charles is on her side..

remember if she is slightly offwall then CC will end up in her facebook too

24.2.08
I reply saying I think the email as sent by mistake, and commenting on the rudeness.

I get an “apology” in the subject line of an email only.
I forward the email to the person in Charles Chauvel’s office that I had been dealing with. He was absolutely mortified and embarrassed and promised to try and sort things out.

24.2.09
Email From Mr Chauvel’s issues manager asking for a phone number to discuss the case before he makes a recommendation to Charles Chauvel.

(despite follow up – we were not contacted till 3rd March, when the issues manager said he would be having a meeting with CC that afternoon. He also said that he had had “conflicting advice” as to whether this should be looked at by the MP or not. We were not given details about what this meant.

He was emailed the timeline and the medical spreadsheet on 3rd March.
.

6.3.09
Phoned Mr Chauvel’s issues manager as no email yesterday as promised.
Get through to a rather drunken message about his mate Dave and eating pies.
Told rather snottily that they will not be taking the matter further.
We should be getting a letter about this.

Note; When I first got the email from the Labour Whips Office, I thought it was hysterically funny. I mean: you just can’t make this stuff up! But by that evening, I was furious and in tears. All we want is to for Immigration staff to do their jobs properly, and to be held accountable when they refuse to do so – and this is the kind of vicious attack we get for standing up for ourselves and asking for the proper processes to be followed.

This person has no right to speak about anyone this way. Even if I had done something wrong – there was just no way in hell that this was an acceptable response – and yet it is what we have been subjected to over and over again: by the NZIS staff, by our local MP John Hayes, and now by staffers working for a labour list MP.

We made a complaint to Parliamentary Services, and for the first time in this whole story – someone took us seriously. The author of that email was put through an employment investigation which took 2 weeks. We are not allowed to know the outcome of the investigation, due to privacy issues. But it was dealt with. This is not the first time this person has sent a stupid and offensive email to the wrong person. The last time they did it – it ended up in the papers. I personally hope they lost thier job – because someone with that attitude towards the people of New Zealand (anyone who is not in politics – whether they are migrants or not) should never be in a position of power.