He had stood for Otara in 1990 to replace Colin Moyle who was retiring, but with the swing against Labour in 1990 he was defeated by Trevor Rogers of the National Party.

An incident of passport fraud carried out by alleged Mossad agents in July 2004 led New Zealand to take diplomatic sanctions against Israel.

Australian Jewish News credited Field with acting as a bridge between the two governments when he visited Nissan Krupsky, the former Israeli ambassador to New Zealand, in Israel in December.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff denied Field played any significant role in overcoming the diplomatic impasse on 1 July.

According to AJN, "While Field's visit eventually turned out to have critical diplomatic significance, it was described as private so as not to be seen as violating the sanctions imposed by Clark.

Nonetheless, throughout his visit Field served as middleman between the two Governments, maintaining phone contacts with Wellington in order to secure Clark's approval for the start of the Ankara talks."

Goff denied that the talks between Israel's FM official Michael Ronen and Ambassador Henderson were a direct result of Field's visit.

[9] In October 2005, Field lost his ministerial posts[10] following controversies around allegations that he had improperly used his influence as an MP to receive material gain.

It was also alleged that Field had used his position to obtain a discounted price for a property deal he had constructed with low-income welfare beneficiaries in his electorate.

[11] Further allegations of improper behaviour were made by the Television New Zealand Sunday programme on 27 August 2006, which led to Prime Minister Helen Clark saying that Field should reconsider his future as an MP.

To forestall moves to expel him from the Labour Party altogether, Field resigned on 16 February 2007, returning to Parliament as an independent, but promising to support the Government's legislative programme.

[19] In the 2008 New Zealand general election, Field lost his seat to incoming new Labour MP William Sio by 7126 votes.

[26] Field appeared in court on 26 November 2007 on 15 counts of bribery and 25 of attempting to pervert the course of justice, and was released on bail without entering a plea.

[2] On 6 October 2009, Field was jailed for six years on corruption charges, with the sentencing judge saying his offending threatened the foundation of democracy and justice.