Mallard Trevor: General Debate 
Mallard Trevor: General Debate 
[Volume:676;Page:21509] 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
: 
 Well it is hard to tell who is a bigger stranger to the truth: the Minister of Education or the Minister who spoke before her. 
Chris Tremain 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The comments that the former Minister just made are unacceptable under the Speakers’ rulings in this House and the Standing Orders. I would ask him to withdraw and apologise. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Speaking to the point of order— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I will hear the member briefly. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: In her concluding comments— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No no the member is now trying under a point of order to argue the case. The issue is whether the language should be allowed. I think I have to support the intervention of Chris Tremain that that is tantamount to saying that a member is a liar and that is totally outside the Standing Orders. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I withdraw and apologise. The final comments— 
Hon Anne Tolley 
: I seek leave to table—and I know that you do not like press releases Mr Speaker— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No we are not going to— 
Hon Anne Tolley 
: —but this is a very old one— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No no— 
Hon Anne Tolley 
: —from 1998— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Hon Anne Tolley. 
Hon Anne Tolley 
: —which quotes the Labour education spokesman Trevor Mallard in the  
Evening Post 
 saying that his national system of benchmark testing was needed so that principals and teachers could significantly raise— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is sufficient. We have heard about it. Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is no objection. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: There is no problem at all. 
As the member knows we introduced the asTTle system. We spent tens of millions of dollars on it and it has been wasted because she has wrecked it she has not continued to fund it and she has run away from having a decent system at all. I also say to the member for Clutha-Southland—no before I finish with the Minister of Education I will make one final comment. We are facing an uphill battle in the election. We do not know what the result will be but the one thing we do know is that after the election when there is a new Cabinet Anne Tolley will not be the Minister of Education. Everyone in this House knows she is for the high jump in that job because she is basically incompetent. 
Chris Tremain 
: Rubbish! 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: She is basically incompetent. 
I turn now to the misleading statements made by Bill English earlier in this House. He said the Labour Party billboards do not say: “Party Vote Labour”. 
Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman 
: They don’t. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: They do. They absolutely do. I probably have 70 up in my electorate which say exactly that: “Party Vote Labour”. The member needs to get his facts right. I think there are three or four that Paul Quinn has up; he was apparently crying because he had to take a few down. He took three or four down. He took a week to put three up early and then 2 days to take them down again. He is crying because he has only three or four of them back up again and they are in bad spots. But just ask Paul Quinn what the Labour Party billboards say. They say: “Party Vote Labour”. They also say the reasons why. They say: “No Asset Sales—Party Vote Labour”. They say: “$15 an hour—Party Vote Labour”. They say: “No GST on fruit and veges—Party Vote Labour”. They say something else which has not yet been announced and is not up yet and then “Party Vote Labour”. The member Bill English I think needs to reflect on national standards in reading look at a reading manual and get someone to read the billboards to him and he will see that at the bottom of the party vote billboards it says: “Party Vote Labour”. 
I do not know what a—[ 
Interruption 
] Maybe that explains it. Bill English was claiming that the debt was down. There is $37 billion more net debt under National. I repeat there is $37 billion more net debt under National. In fact if we had done this graph which I have here at another time we could have got the red into negative but we thought we would do a fair comparison. 
Let us then look at jobs. We had the Prime Minister claiming miracles claiming miracles in the job stakes. I think the Prime Minister does not know the difference between a job queue and a job. He does not understand that when we have nearly 900 people lining up for 45 full-time and a few part-time jobs in Kaiapoi of all places—900 people in Kaiapoi lining up for 45 full-time and a few part-time jobs—it is the 45 that counts and not the 900. I think the Prime Minister does not understand the difference between applying for a job and getting a job. We have seen his abysmal misunderstanding—and I will put it that way Mr Speaker because if he did it deliberately it would be a breach of Parliament and I would not allege that—therefore he must be incompetent and misunderstanding. The Prime Minister should face up to the fact that he has no plan he is muddling and the economy is failing as a result.