Mallard Trevor: General Debate 
Mallard Trevor: General Debate 
[Volume:620;Page:15469] 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Minister of Education) 
: 
 About 21 years ago I became a parliamentary candidate and on the very first day of canvassing for the then Hamilton West seat for which I was a candidate Mike Moore came to the electorate. I think it was when he was about No. 3 in the Opposition and he coined the term “Minogue burger”. A “Minogue burger” was half tongue and half chicken and there were one or two interesting asides at the time. It made the first edition of the  
Waikato Times 
 but the second edition of the  
Waikato Times  
looked like one of those things from wartime. The paper had chipped out the offending paragraph leaving a blank where it had appeared—which said something about the National Party’s relationship with the  
Waikato Times  
at that time. 
Earlier in the year the term “Minogue burger” could have been applied to the Leader of the Opposition Don Brash. I think it would have been an appropriate label. There was a certain amount of hit-and-run about him but I think the tongue has been taken out of the “Minogue burger”. The “Brash burger” has no tongue—he has lost his tongue and he will not come here—and it is just a chicken burger. The “Brash burger” is a chicken burger. He will not come to the House and he will not comment. 
We have now had 2 days this week when there was an opportunity for the Leader of the Opposition to ask a question or even a supplementary question and what happened? 
Gerry Brownlee 
: We should be factual about matters in this House and to help the member speaking I seek leave to table the  
Hansard 
 of Tuesday’s question time when Dr Brash made it very clear to the whole nation that Mr Hawkins was about to get the chop from Cabinet. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The member knows that that is a debating point. 
Simon Power 
: The member sought leave to table the  
Hansard 
. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I am sorry the member sought leave to table the  
Hansard 
. Is there any objection? There is. 
Jim Peters 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I am not quite sure what path the Minister is going down but may I assert to you that if the Minister is suggesting that Mike Minogue a past member of this House was guilty of cowardice—because the Minister used the word “chicken”—then that is not appropriate at this time and it should be withdrawn. With regard to this “Minogue burger” to which he applied the word “half chicken” I believe that is an unfortunate and disparaging comment upon an excellent past member of this House and not least for Hamilton. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I think that is part of robust debate. 
Jim Peters 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I draw to your attention that in any section of the community or society where the word “chicken” is used it implies cowardice. If that term is acceptable in this House I suggest strongly that it is not appropriate— 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: He means a burger. 
Jim Peters 
: This is a point of order Madam Deputy Speaker. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I give a final warning today that when a member is on his or her feet with a point of order there will be silence. That is the one and only warning. 
Jim Peters 
: I suggest that if that is not so and there was no implication that Michael Minogue was in any way lacking in courage then that should be made clear by the Minister; otherwise I ask that he withdraw his comment. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I consider it a matter of debate. It is a matter of taste. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: The point I was coming to is that we are waiting for Dr Brash to come to this House and engage with the Prime Minister. We are waiting for the Leader of the Opposition at least to pretend that he has the backbone to take the battle to the Prime Minister. Will he have the courage of his convictions a view a difference some strength a bit of energy? Is he awake? We are looking for some evidence that we have a live Leader of the Opposition. No evidence of that has been given to the House in recent times. What does he do? He goes around running down New Zealand. He runs down our education system. He says that our literacy is worse than that of the United States when the Programme for International Student Assessment shows that we are third and the United States is 16th. He says that 25 percent of New Zealand school leavers are illiterate when the evidence is quite clear that that is not true. 
What I do want to say is that I welcome the comments made by Bill English a person of integrity a person who was knifed by Dr Brash a person who says that after 20 years on literacy finally a Government has got it right. It takes some courage to make that sort of comment and I am pleased that the previous Leader of the Opposition has the courage to praise the Government in this way. I ask that at some stage he brief the current leader so that he gets a bit of an ounce of the material that has caused Bill English to make those positive comments. 
I also want to comment on ACT and to give its members my condolences. I think it is sad. I think they all know now that they made a mistake in the appointment of Rodney Hide as their leader. In the end it was Mr Eckhoff who was responsible for that. 
Hon Mark Gosche 
: Rodney who? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: That is a point. He did not even get the dead-cat bounce that Don Brash got for a period of time. I appreciate the problem and I ask Rodney Hide when he is going to put a circular around the Epsom electorate telling it that he would abolish the Auckland Grammar zone. When will he do that?