Mallard Trevor: General Debate 
Mallard Trevor: General Debate 
[Volume:627;Page:21843] 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Minister of Education) 
: 
 I am not going to spend a lot of time commenting on the previous speech. I will just say that the member is flanked by two members who are going to have the ability I think to give a valedictory speech in a way that that member is not in the not too distant future. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: When are those valedictories going to be? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Sometime before 24 September. I am not going to spend a lot of time on ACT because it is polling at about 1.5 percent so it is getting to the point of being irrelevant. 
I do though want to focus on a lack of judgment shown by the Opposition and in particular on the part of the Leader of the Opposition in a number of areas. We had the classic case in the House during question time when a suggestion was made that the current National spokesperson on education might consult his colleague who was sitting next to him and Don Brash thought that was a terrible insult and should be ruled out. What did he do? He drew attention to something that he thought was a terrible thing to say which most people around New Zealand would not have got too anxious about. The idea of consulting Nick Smith I think on occasions might be a good idea. I cannot think of the occasion but it is a definite possibility. 
Darren Hughes 
: Not if one is buying a new rug. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: No he is not good on recognising rugs. He is OK with rug rats but not rugs. 
I say also to the National Party that as we are tracking expectations of tax changes by the National Party—that is the public’s expectations of the promises it is going to make—the expectations are going up and up. It is now at the point where most people are expecting somewhere close to $50 a week for people on the average wage as a tax cut from the National Party. A couple of weeks ago it was only $30. The problem is that the National Party has got itself into a trap. I see Maurice Williamson smiling in agreement. National members know they have got themselves into a pretty serious situation. If the position was the same as a couple of weeks ago—that is $30 a week for the average wage earner and obviously a lot more money for National’s mates—that would be an annual $3 billion to be found. We must remember that we are in a situation where we are very close on a cash-accounting basis to a deficit—very very close. But what National wants to do and what it knows it would have to do is either borrow the $3 billion a year—$3 billion was the expectation a couple of weeks ago; now it is $5 billion—or make cuts. National has made clear where some of the cuts would be. Apparently superannuation— 
Jill Pettis 
: Health. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I am not saying it will make a cut in health care. I am saying that National will charge because that is what Don Brash said. He said there is nothing wrong with health care that the price mechanism will not fix. We know the only way of invoking a price mechanism in health care is to charge Kiwis to go to the public hospitals. That is what National members want to do. It is what they were lining up to do in the past. It is Ruth Richardson all over again. 
Hon Mark Burton 
: And they are talking about selling assets. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Talking about selling assets I have to ask: what about schools? Don Brash does not care who owns the schools. He has promised to transfer them to trusts that would be able to do what the electricity trusts did and on-privatise them. That is the National Party’s approach. Maybe in the first year or two it would not cost it any more. 
Clayton Cosgrove 
: Will they deny it? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: No National members do not deny it at all. Of course they will not deny it. That is their policy. One thing I can say is that Maurice Williamson is proud of that policy. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Yep! 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: He agrees with it he is proud of it and he has just interjected to indicate that that is the case whereas the rest of the National Party does not have the backbone that he does. Those members will not stand up and say what their policy is.