Key John: General Debate 
Key John: General Debate 
[Volume:638;Page:8623] 
JOHN KEY (Leader of the Opposition) 
: 
 It is the sign of a Government that is under pressure and that cannot hack the pace when the Minister of Education has to resort in question time to using a four-letter word to defend a failing position. It is the sign of a Government under huge pressure. Members of the New Zealand public will remember the way that Government members showed disdain for Ron Mark when he gave the visual equivalent of what Steve Maharey said in the House today. It is a sign of what is permeating through this Government when the Minister for State Owned Enterprises Trevor Mallard was heard using the same kind of language when talking to Television New Zealand— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. [ 
Interruption 
]  
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Relax and when members are feeling relaxed relax even more. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: The member knows that what he is saying is untrue. I require that he withdraw and apologise. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member has taken personal exception under Standing Order 116. I ask the member to withdraw. 
JOHN KEY 
: I withdraw. 
Plenty of people heard Trevor Mallard speaking to the staff of Television New Zealand. They will draw their own conclusions as to what Mr Trevor Mallard was trying to tell Television New Zealand and the way the Government is trying to influence journalists in New Zealand. Mr Mallard knows that I am correct. He knows exactly what he said to those journalists. He knows exactly that we have a rich vein in this Government that will cross anyone and anything to get to where it wants to go. Mr Maharey should have the good grace now to get up and apologise to my colleague Mr Jonathan Coleman for using the f word in question time. He should get up and apologise to the people of New Zealand because he knows what he said. 
On Monday National made a very significant policy in relation to education. We said we wanted to do a couple of things. We care about improving educational standards in New Zealand and we will do three things. One is that we will have a national benchmark. We will be able to manage and measure whether children in New Zealand have reached a benchmark for reading writing and maths. The second thing we will do is assess those children against that benchmark each year. The third thing we will do is report to the parents of New Zealand. 
I was not surprised that the Minister of Education did not think that that was a great idea because he does not like reports. On Saturday the  
New Zealand Herald  
ran a report on Cabinet and it makes pretty grim reading. There is a lot more detail in this report than the amount of detail parents get about their children in New Zealand. So what did it say about Steve Maharey whom it rated pretty lowly? The entire Cabinet barely got a five out of 10. It said: “His supreme self-confidence should have taken a battering over the 20-hour ‘free’ childcare fiasco and the implementation of NCEA.” 
What is quite interesting today is the pecuniary interest register that has just come out. Out of interest I looked at the pecuniary interest register. I looked at the entry on Mr Maharey actually. What does it say? It says lots of things actually. It says that the Minister of Education went to Botswana to overview educational standards—that is what he did. The man who is trying to tell the National Party how to run education went to Botswana— 
Hon Member 
: Did he tell them what he thought of them? 
JOHN KEY 
: I think he might have told them what he thought of them when he was there. On top of all that the trip was paid for by the country of Botswana. It actually paid for him to go. So my advice to Steve is to keep his educational advice for the good people of Botswana—or maybe he should pass it on to Sean Plunket. As far as we on this side of the House are concerned we are not really that interested. 
There are some other quite interesting comments in this  
New Zealand Herald 
 report in which some Ministers really did not get a five out of 10. Mark Burton with his normal confidence and will rated a two out of 10. That was no improvement on last year; he got the deuce last year as well. The report states: “Clark must be pointing him in the direction of the exit sign …”. What it did not say is that Helen Clark—as she said in the  
New Zealand Herald  
a few weeks earlier actually—has eight members minimum on her exit list and word from inside is that there are 14. What happened the day after she said there were eight? Mr Hawkins was in the paper saying: “I’m going nowhere.” She did not have to name and shame him like she did Dover Samuels Jill Pettis Paul Swain Russell Fairbrother or Mark Burton—there are many on the list. George Hawkins came out in the paper and said to the Prime Minister: “I’m going nowhere.” Well that is where this Government is going—nowhere in a hurry because it is in one awful rut.