Big hitters trade blow for blow on education

Education is one of the key election issues and one of the key battles is the ongoing tussle between Education Minister Trevor Mallard and National's education spokesman, Bill English.

In Parliament this year the contest has been at its most fierce, and the evenly matched pair have regularly worked themselves up into a red-faced, vein-bulging frenzy while hectoring and insulting each other.

Mr English has had plenty of material - the scholarship debacle, ongoing problems with NCEA, the wananga and the funding of sub-degree courses at polytechnics - and has been able to make gains for National.

He adopted a painstaking and pedantic style. The rationale seemed to be to chip away every day in the hope that it would eventually cause the wall Mr Mallard had built around his portfolio to collapse.

Sometimes it was hard to see where Mr English was going with his endless questioning, but his technique paid dividends over the scholarship crisis and the funding of community education and sub-degree courses.

Mr Mallard is not one to shy away from a fight, though, and has managed to finish the parliamentary term battle scarred but probably in far better condition than he should be.

This war between the two MPs has spilled over into the torrent of press releases both send out. Within minutes of one releasing a statement the other will respond, most times with scathing disdain.

"Whatever Trevor" read one of Mr English's statements last month, "I would advise Mr Mallard to have a nice hot bath, a cup of tea and a lie down and think about what he's going to do to improve education standards in his last few weeks as minister."

Yesterday Mr Mallard sent out a press release accusing Mr English of calling parents stupid.

"While I know that Bill English looks down his nose at Kiwi parents - to directly insult them as he has in this way shocks me."

Last month he accused Mr English of "regularly and repeatedly" making things up and said he was someone "who could not give a toss about telling people the truth".

The competition between the two is intense and both will use whatever means to show the other up, but there is also a sense that each appreciates the other for being a worthy opponent.

Both men have a good understanding of the education sector and a firm belief that they have the vision and solutions to improve it.