Mallard Trevor: General Debates 
Mallard Trevor: General Debates 
[Volume:610;Page:7917] 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Minister of Education) 
: 
 What a laugh! We have a Leader of the Opposition in trouble. He was squawking away during question time like his underwear was too tight but can he stay here and lead his party in a general debate? No he gets his shoeshine boy to do it. Why does he do that? Because he is in enormous trouble. It became clear last night that compared to a year ago the National Party has absolutely lost faith in Bill English as leader. In July last year 62 percent of National Party supporters—and I must say that that is not particularly high—thought that he was performing well. What is the story 12 months later? That level of support is down to 31 percent. He has lost his support amongst rank and file National Party members. What does that mean? It means in the end that his time is coming. National members do not have a date yet. They are desperate. 
Darren Hughes 
: Desperate and dateless! 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Yes that is exactly the line. The National Party is desperate and dateless. I predict that pretty soon National Party members will get a date. 
Jill Pettis 
: When? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I do not know when; it depends on how desperate they get. I know that there are people who only just won their seats in 1996. In 1999 there were people like Simon Power who is getting the wobbles now. He was the man who was groomed to be the National Party leader but now he is in danger of losing his own seat. He knows that— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: When did this member lose his seat? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: This member knows about losing his seat and he knows about the wobbles that occur when there is a danger of it happening. He has seen it with a number of his colleagues as well. So I speak with some experience in this area. I know the sense of desperation a little personally. In 2002 27 percent of people thought that Bill English was out of touch with ordinary people. That has gone up to 39 percent. That is a very very serious figure. The common touch was the thing that Bill English had and clearly more and more people know that he is out of touch. Twenty-seven percent of people used to think he was narrow-minded. That has now gone up to 41 percent. 
Dianne Yates 
: How many? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Forty-one percent. If I were Phil Heatley I would be getting exceptionally worried. It is all very well being Roger Sowry and having a high place on the list. In that particular case one can get whipped by Darren Hughes whipped by Judy Keall but saved by the list. But the list will not help Phil Heatley who I am told is the member for Whangarei. What people used to think about Bill English—rather what half the people in the country used to think; 49 percent—was that he had sound judgment. But that number has dropped away now. It is down to 37 percent. So only just over a third of the people think Bill English has sound judgment. How long can National hold on to someone who is performing so badly? I think that to a certain extent Roger Sowry is right—in the last month the National Party has had an enormous opportunity to make mincemeat of this Government. If I had been over on that side and the Government had had an issue the way that this Government has had an issue they would have been floundering all over the place. We would have been attacking and we would have been scoring. Well Bill English is giving signs of not scoring at all. He is giving signs of a leader who is getting to the point of being terminal. They cannot have that. Maybe the National Party has decided that really it does not have anyone better; so it accepts yet another loss. We know it has made the approach to Mr Peters. We know National has been asking him to come back to National and to merge the parties. Well what are they doing sending Gerry Brownlee down to spend time with the member at half past three in the morning in Courtenay Place? They are hopeless they are going and Bill English is finished.