Woman at centre of Malaysian immunity mess calls for McCully to resign and criticises Key's sincerity; Labour to fund gifted student teachers; Your view?

By Bernard Hickey

With 71 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 Thursday July 10, including criticism of Murray McCully and John Key by the woman at the centre of sexual assault allegations against a Malaysian diplomat and more Labour policy on education and the Canterbury recovery.

The political focus today is on comments to 3 News' 3rd Degree by Tania Billingsley, 21, the woman at the centre of the sexual assault allegations against Malaysian diplomat Muhammad Rizalman bin Ismail.

Billingsley voluntarily relinquished name suppression to criticise the handling of her case and the sincerity of both Murray McCully and John Key. She said the issue only appeared to become real to the officials and McCully when it started to affect them. She was upset McCully had not asked about her case in the seven weeks before it became public.

"Clearly he doesn't know how to do his job properly," Billingsley said, adding she wanted a personal apology from McCully and she wanted him to resign.

"I would like an apology from him, not just for what I feel is a really incompetent handling of the situation, but in his reaction, like the fact that even when asked directly about me and things like that, that he just brushed it off," Billingsley said.

"He was so intent on trying to put responsibility and blame on everybody else that I just feel like he wasn't actually addressing and putting energy towards fixing what had happened. Obviously it was painful for me to watch that, seeing someone be so dismissive of something that's been so traumatic to me, but it is also embarrassing watching a grown man trying to put blame and talk his way out of what effectively is failure at his own job," she said.

Billingsley also criticised John Key 's initial comments.

"I just remember the very first thing I watched on it, and just seeing him looking bored and annoyed at having to be talking about it, and just saying there's nothing that we can do pretty much. 'Oh it sucks but it is what it is.' And that's what I was getting. I don't feel from him any sincerity in his concern for me," she said of Key.

McCully has declined further comment on the issue, saying it was a matter for the Police and the courts. Key is reported to be on leave until July 21.

Green call

The Green Party called for the review of MFAT's actions to be expanded to include the actions of McCully and Key, and for McCully to stand down while the review was being conducted. It also wanted an independent review conducted, rather than an internal one by MFAT.

“It is astonishing that Ms Billingsley was still waiting for an apology from anyone in Government yesterday," said Green Co-Leader Metiria Turei.

“Mr McCully has said he’d apologised, but an off the cuff apology over the TV doesn’t cut it, especially for a generation that doesn’t even watch it. Mr McCully would never have considered a TV apology good enough for the Prime Minister and it’s not good enough for Ms Billingsley," Turei said.

Labour CERA and ECan policy

Meanwhile, Labour Leader David Cunliffe said a Labour Government would appoint a board of qualified locals to govern the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) and oversee the return of its powers to local authorities by the expiry of CERA legislation in 2016.

“Another important step to restoring democracy in Canterbury is to reinstate local body representatives to Environment Canterbury (ECan), a right denied residents since the sacking of the previous council in 2010, as soon as possible," Cunliffe, saying an election could be held as soon as 2015.

Cunliffe said a Labour Govenrment would also work with the Christchurch Council "to come up with a fair and sustainable solution to the city’s ballooning debt, largely a consequence of a government imposed cost-sharing arrangement."

“There will be no set restrictions on the options that can be negotiated in these discussions."

Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee said adding another layer of governance on top of CERA would not speed up the recovery and would only water down the central Government's accountability for its NZ$15 billion of spending.

“Locals already have a strong voice in the recovery through ongoing input from the Community Forum, and consultation on projects that are particularly important to the community such as the successful Share an Idea campaign, and the upcoming consultation on future use of the Red Zone. It should also not be forgotten that CERA employees are almost all residents of Christchurch, who have a clear understanding of local issues, and certainly feed this into their work," Brownlee said, adding the Government was also consulting Cantabrians about the future of ECan.

He said Labour's "open-ended policy" on debt sharing with the Christchurch Council would "remove the certainty around the Anchor Projects and central city, and subject New Zealanders to an unquantified financial commitment."

“Once again Labour has shown they have no grasp on the issues that are actually important to Cantabrians, and have not yet offered a single policy that will make the rebuild happen better or faster. This policy is the latest fizzer in a long line of announcements that show Labour really has no idea what Christchurch needs."

Labour education policy

Labour Education spokesman Chris Hipkins announced a Labour Government would centrally fund dedicated programmes for gifted children outside of regular classes and re-establish a Gifted Advisory Board.

Labour would also fund an additional 100 special needs teachers, he said.

(Updated with Labour announcement on Canterbury recovery policy, reaction)

I'll keep updating this through the day.

See all my previous election diaries here.

See the index for Interest.co.nz's special election policy comparison pages here.