National Starting Duck Season Early

National has signalled that they are bringing the biff back to politics and will start by heaping more pressure on Trevor Mallard on the first sitting day of the year.

The National Party is continuing its warpath against Speaker Trevor Mallard over his $330,000 settlement with the Parliamentary staffer he alleged was a rapist.

When Parliament resumes on Tuesday National leader Judith Collins will attempt a motion of no confidence in Mallard.

But the move is likely doomed because Labour’s massive majority in the House means it can block the motion from being debated.

Shadow leader of the House Chris Bishop said the attempt to out Mallard was “a matter of principle”.

“We’re very clear that his behaviour is not up to the job of the Speaker.

“It’s just simply not appropriate to have the Speaker of the House besmirching the dignity of Parliament in the way that he has and failing to uphold the standards of the House that he himself is in charge of enforcing,” said Bishop.

NZ Herald

Trevor Mallard is a disgrace, not just as Speaker, but as a human being. He has smeared and defamed his way through New Zealand politics, and Labour just enables him.

This particular case is egregious and shameless. Not only did Trevor Mallard defame a parliamentary staffer, he also destroyed his career. On top of that, even when he knew he was wrong, he continued to use his taxpayer-funded lawyers to bully the poor bastard by trying to remove his court-ordered suppression.

The gutless coward then quietly settled it all, with the exception of the pending employment case, and used taxpayer funds to do it just before Christmas. Clearly he was hoping that everyone would forget about it over the summer holidays.

Bishop urged Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to “put the boot on the other foot” and consider her position if it had been a National Party Speaker who had called someone a rapist.

“He realised he’d made a mistake [within] 24 hours of making the comment and then essentially spent months and months and months refusing to apologise and accept he’d done wrong,” said Bishop.

“I’d just ask her, would she really have confidence in that person to lead Parliament? And I think if she’s honest with herself the answer would be ‘no’ and she would be the first person calling for the Speaker to resign.”

NZ Herald

She won’t move against her parliamentary protector. Remember too she used to be Mallard’s handbag at functions. So, she will cling to Mallard like Michael Jackson clung to small boys.