Whaleoil Radio Summer Series – Trevor Mallard

I spent the morning with Trevor Mallard at Astoria in Wellington for today’s Summer Series interview. In retrospect the location could have been better with a lot of ambient noise, but I’m a blogger and go to my  subjects not the other way round.

Trevor was very frank and open during the interview and I enjoyed chatting with him. I hope you enjoy the interview.

WOBH Summer Series Interviews – Trevor Mallard

Key Quotes from Trevor Mallard:

On John Key:

I think that he thinks that if he can smile, wave, avoid any deeper agenda and avoid offending people then he will win the next election and that’s what he wants to do.

On other politicians:

Some of them I agree with on the other side more than others, sometimes i agree with bits of what they think and some people I think they are total dorks.

On Winston Peters:

I think Peters is one of the most cunning politicians around.

Later in the year he will have an issue or two, which are important to, not to 20% of Kiwis but to 10% and what he is trying to do is get half of that 10%.

On Muldoon:

I think that there is probably half the population now who think that many of the policies of Muldoon and the approach of Muldoon was not as wrong as we thought they were in the late 1980s and 1990s

He also had a firm belief in having as many jobs for Kiwis as he could possibly develop.

On Labour emulating Muldoonist policies:

I think there is no doubt that we moved in the time of the last Labour government that away from the Douglas/Richardson era policies and I think there is room to move a bit more yet.

On Conor Roberts:

Didn’t we lend him to Len? I’m not sure on when he is coming back.

On Compulsory voting:

I’d love to make voting compulsory, you would have a Labour government for a long long time

On compulsion:

Lots of Kiwis like compulsion for other people.

Are Kiwis better off under National:

There are not many Kiwis who will feel better off.

On paying down debt:

Well paying down debt is really sensible on an individual basis, but I’m not sure that it is as a nation.

Would we have been better off under Labour?:

Unemployment would have been lower, general confidence would have been higher, and yes debt short term would have been higher but I am someone who thinks that it is worth borrowing to get kids into polytechnics.

On Tertiary training:

We need to look at who is going there, there are a lot of people who are going into those courses who I think should have been at school and we need to look pretty carefully at how unattractive the senior parts of some of our secondary schools are…

The acceptability of unemployment for people especially under 20, my view is you have gotta either have job, be at school or be in some sort of training.

How National should run their campaign:

Whatever issues can involve the smiling face of the prime minister, being out in front, some sort of extra bonus for the All Blacks winning the World Cup and their photos taken with John would be worth going on and also what I would do is bury a few of the ministers early in the year.

Who should be fired from National Ministry:

Chris Finlayson, Anne Tolley

I would look, if I was John Key, at some of the talent that they aren’t using.

On Hekia Parata:

Well Hekia is very good at shifting around the chamber to sit behind the person who is answering the question, there is no doubt that she is glamourous, she is personally pleasant.

On Anne Tolley:

I think it would be pretty hard on those boundaries to beat Tolley, I think the National party could…well they are running a donkey there , they could run a mule and win.

On campaigning in Botany:

I wouldn’t spend much…my gut reaction would be to treat it like Tauranga and forget it.