Williams Andrew: Urgent Debates — Diplomatic Incident Malaysian Official—Negotiations Regarding Waiver of Diplomatic ImmunityText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Andrew: Urgent Debates — Diplomatic Incident Malaysian Official—Negotiations Regarding Waiver of Diplomatic Immunity[Sitting date: 02 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19137. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First):I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to also express our grave concern about how this whole matter has been handled. A very serious crime has allegedly been committed against a young 21-year-old woman in this country and it would appear that this Government has wished to just brush it under the carpet and allow it to go unaccounted for hoping that the media and the public of New Zealand would not become aware of it. However the media did uncover it and it has now been fully put out into the public. Also again the media has gone to the High Court and had the suppression order overturned to ensure that the name of the individual who is alleged to have committed this crime is known.It is concerning that there seems to have been a litany of errors by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and also by the office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister himself in terms of handling this. It is somewhat concerning that still today on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade website listed under foreign representatives accredited to New Zealand this individual Mr Muhammad Rizalman bin Ismail still appears as an accredited diplomat in this country.John Hayes: Big deal.ANDREW WILLIAMS: So the first thing I would suggest to Mr Hayes sitting over there in the back seat and to Mr McCully would be that perhaps they should suggest that out of respect to the young 21-year-old woman that individual’s name is at least taken off the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade website in the meantime. The very least that they could do is get on with that. When you look back at the time frame of this whole incident the Minister said this afternoon that this occurred on 9 May 2014—that was a Friday evening—and he was informed on Saturday 10 May. However he did not have any subsequent discussions briefings or updates from the ministry until last Friday 27 June—7 whole weeks. From one Friday when the offence was committed it was 7 whole weeks until the Minister then got a subsequent full briefing last Friday which occurred only because he got wind of the fact that the media were on to it. That is most disappointing.Any Minister who is aware that a serious crime has taken place in any ministry regardless of which ministry it is should be on top of his game. The Minister should have been ensuring that the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was keeping him fully informed on developments. He does not have to interfere he does not have to get involved and he does not have to intervene politically but he should have at the very least ensured that he was receiving regular briefings on how the matter was proceeding. Had that been the case we probably would not have seen the indecision and the ambiguity that has apparently gone on which has allowed the Malaysians to infer something out of the discussions—the unofficial discussions—so that they now feel that they are somewhat aggrieved that the chap is wanted back in New Zealand in order to face the consequences and the proper police questioning.So we have been left in this sort of no man’s land of very indecisive decisions being made by the ministry by the Minister and also by the Prime Minister as well. The Prime Minister has not been on top of his game in this respect. He should have been up with this. This is again one of the many instances of a National Minister not properly informing the Prime Minister and in turn—as happened with the Government Communications Security Bureau as happened last year with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and as has happened with other ministries—the Prime Minister not making sure that his Ministers are properly keeping him briefed and informed.I am somewhat disappointed by this whole diplomatic situation with Malaysia. I am the deputy chair of the New Zealand - Malaysia Parliamentary Friendship Group. Melissa Lee is the chairperson of that group. We both established that group about a year ago. I did that because my brother is buried in Terendak Camp in Malaysia. When he was killed in Viet Nam his body was flown to Malaysia and he is buried there. So I have a close connection to Malaysia. I have visited Malaysia on a number of occasions in order to visit his grave so I have a close affinity to Malaysia. I know that over many many years the Malaysians have had a close relationship with New Zealand going back to the Colombo Plan. Many students come and visit here and are educated here including many leading Malaysian politicians who have studied here and have subsequently gone back to being leaders in the Malaysian political system. So we do have a longstanding relationship with Malaysia and it is very strong. So this whole incident and the way that it has been handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and by the Minister of Foreign Affairs is somewhat disappointing because it very much undermines that whole relationship and stability of the friendship with Malaysia.However having said that I am also somewhat disappointed in our police. This was a serious crime and I believe once again that perhaps the police should have been far more proactive in terms of ensuring again through the Minister of Police that the Ministers round the Cabinet table were informed of this situation to make sure that they were aware that this was a potentially serious political situation and also a serious crime against a New Zealand citizen. That did not occur and again one does wonder—and we do often have questions raised in this House and around New Zealand—what level of political interference goes on within our New Zealand police force so that things are kept under the radar and so that there is no political fallout from it.However I would also through this House urge the Malaysian High Commissioner to New Zealand—whom I have met on a number of occasions Her Excellency Ms Zahid. I am somewhat disappointed that she has not perhaps taken a greater role as a woman—as a woman—and as a head of a mission in this country to ensure that this incident was properly investigated and that the perpetrator was properly brought to justice in this situation. I would call on the high commissioner to do what she should do as a woman in a situation like this and ensure that the young 21-year-old woman has her rightful justice and her day in court here in New Zealand so that the New Zealand judicial system can properly take account of this.I am not doubting that a Malaysian military court of inquiry would be thorough but I do not believe it is fair for a young New Zealand woman to be put through the situation of having to provide evidence through the New Zealand Police to then ensure that her situation is properly represented in a far-off country through a military tribunal. I think it is only fair that this matter is brought to justice in this country. I would implore the high commissioner the Minister of Foreign Affairs and indeed the Prime Minister to say that we are humans here and we are honourable. The honourable thing is for this gentleman to face a proper judicial process here in New Zealand and to be properly held to account for his actions.We hope that this is the last time that we have to have a situation like this with Ministers going AWOL. It is such a shame that so much time is being spent by both the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Trade on jet-setting around the world to try to get a seat on the United Nations Security Council. They are spending hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars of New Zealand taxpayers’ money to try to get a seat on the Security Council while back at home the basics of humanity the basics of ensuring that we live in a civil society where such crimes are not perpetrated on our society and on our citizens are not being upheld. I think those Ministers should perhaps spend a little bit more time overseeing their ministries and overseeing what is happening and functioning within their ministries and a little bit less time in the first-class cabins of 747s and other aircraft around the world on the junket trips. They should spend a little bit more time back in New Zealand making sure that New Zealanders are also protected in terms of foreign affairs and trade on our home patch.New Zealand First registers its strong strong disappointment in the way that this whole situation has been handled. We would like to see it resolved very very swiftly and expeditiously.