Collins keeps up pressure on Benson-Pope

David Benson-Pope will be under fire again in Parliament today.

The Dunedin MP and Environment Minister will face more questions about his treatment of pupils at Dunedin's Bayfield High School, where he was a teacher in the early 1980s.

Claims which were part of the police file released last year, that Mr Benson-Pope made girl pupils stand in the cold in their nighties at a school camp, have been re-kindled.

National MP Judith Collins claims Mr Benson-Pope has received special treatment by the police because of his position. She says he called female students "fluffy bunnies" which Ms Collins believes is evidence he is unfit to be a minister. She is promising to keep up the pressure on him today.

Last year's police report found there was a prima facie case that a boy's hands were taped to a desk while he had a tennis ball in his mouth and that the MP gave another a bleeding nose.

Police did not prosecute because the allegations dated back 23 years.

- NEWSTALK ZB