McCully apologises to Key over Malaysian immunity "ambiguity"; Key says wouldn't accept McCully resignation; Govt launches family violence policy; Labour to end school donations

By Bernard Hickey

With 80 days left until the September 20 election, here's my daily round-up of the political and governmental news from in and around Wellington on July 2.

A clearly shaken Foreign Minister Minister Murray McCully held a news conference 'on the tiles' outside Parliament's debating chamber on Wednesday morning to explain why Malaysia thought New Zealand was OK with Malaysian diplomat Muhammad Rizalman bin Ismail returning home to face disciplinary action rather than being charged with sexual assualt in New Zealand.

McCully and Prime Minister John Key clearly stated on Tuesday that New Zealand had formally asked Malaysia to waive diplomatic immunity and that it had called in Malaysia's Head of Mission in New Zealand to express its concern about the diplomat being called home in defiance of the request.

Instead, Malaysian Foreign Affairs Minister Anifah Aman said at a news conference in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday that Malaysia had been prepared to waive immunity, but decided to bring the diplomat home after New Zealand offered an alternative where the man was prosecuted in Malaysia.

McCully was then forced into an embarrassing statement late on Tuesday night saying "it is now clear to me that officials engaged in informal communications over what is a complex case, in a manner that would have been ambiguous to the Malaysian Government."

McCully told reporters on Wednesday he was not aware of the informal ambiguous comments by officials and had therefore not informed the Prime Minister before Key made his comments on Monday. Startlingly, McCully also said he had not been told by MFAT that the diplomat had been called home.

McCully said he had apologised to Key earlier on Wednesday morning about the lack of information and declined to say whether he had considered or discussed his own resignation with Key. 

"I told the Prime Minister that he had not been given all of the information he should have been given. And I have taken responsibility for that and apologised to him," McCully said.

Key later told a news conference in the Beehive Theatrette that he had not discussed resignation with McCully and wouldn't accept any resignation if it was offered. He said the lack of information provided to ministers was surprising.

McCully said he had asked MFAT CEO John Allen to investigate why the Government had not been better informed and why the informal indication was given that led to Malaysia deciding not to waive immunity. McCully declined to say if Allen had offered his own resignation or had been asked to resign.

"The unseemly situation you saw yesterday when the Malaysian Foreign Minister and I were talking at odds with each other is something that should not have occurred. My own view is that it falls short of the standards we should expect," McCully said.

Labour Foreign Affairs Spokesman David Shearer said McCully had apologised to the wrong person.

“He should apologise to the woman who was allegedly sexually assaulted and burgled. It is the bungling by Murray McCully and his ministry which has denied her justice weeks after the alleged crimes against her," Shearer said.

“Murray McCully has also said he was not kept up to date or informed about the progress of the Malaysian case until last week. Either he’s not telling the whole story, or that is an extraordinary indictment of the functioning of his office and Ministry," he said.

“Surely a charge of attempted rape is something a Minister would take an active interest in."

Family violence package

Meanwhile in the Beehive Theatrette, Key, Justice Minister Judith Collins and Police Minister Anne Tolley announced a package of measures designed to reduce family violence.

They included:

• The establishment of a Chief Victims’ Advisor to the Minister of Justice, similar to the Chief Science Advisor.
• The trial of an intensive case management service for family violence victims at risk of serious harm or death
• The trial of mobile safety alarms with GPS technology, so victims can alert police to their location in an emergency
• Introduction of legislation to change the Sentencing Act, which will allow courts to stipulate GPS monitoring of high-risk domestic violence offenders who can’t currently have this condition imposed on them.
• Looking at a conviction disclosure regime to allow a person to know if a partner has previous convictions for violence,
• Looking at whether prosecutors should be able to invite the judge or jury to draw an adverse inference when a defendant refuses to give evidence in sexual violence cases. Current law only allows the defendant, the defendant’s lawyer or the Judge to comment on a defendant’s failure to give evidence.

The package is estimated to cost NZ$9.4 million over four years. Here's the policy factsheet.

Labour's school donation policy

Meanwhile at an event at the Fergusson Intermediate School in Upper Hutt, Labour Leader David Cunliffe and Education Spokesman Chris Hipkins announced a Labour Government would pay schools who offered not to ask parents for 'donations' a grant of NZ$100 per student to offset the loss of donations.

Schools received NZ$97 million in donations in 2012. Here's the policy factsheet.

Labour costed the policy at NZ$50 million a year on the basis that all state schools in Deciles 1-7, 30% of schools in Deciles 8-10 and integrated schools accepted the NZ$100 per student payment to stop soliciting donations.

Schools would still be able to require activity fees to be paid for the actual costs of extra-curricular activates such as school camps. Those participating in the optional scheme would not be able to ask for a general ‘donation’ to help fund school operations.

Cunliffe later clashed with Key on the issue of school donations in Parliamentary question. (See the video above). Key described Cunliffe as "tricky Dave" and said schools were likely to simply increase their activity fees and take Labour's NZ$100 per child grant. Cunliffe then went on to describe Key as "slippery John."

I'll continue to update this through the day.

(Updated with video of Cunliffe question in Parliament to Key on school donations, comments from Shearer)