John MacDonald: Trevor Mallard has lost the plot

I’m not going to beat around the bush. I’m just going to say it.
I think Trevor Mallard has lost the plot. 
That’s my honest opinion - after the way he’s behaved as Speaker of the House, dealing with the Convoy protesters who have been camped outside Parliament for the past week.
He has lost the plot. And I’m not surprised to see that others are thinking the same.
I said last week when he brought the cops in on Day Three of the protest and they started arresting people, that I thought it was way too early in the piece for that to be happening.
But when he turned the sprinklers on the protesters - which turned out to be pointless anyway because it bucketed down with rain on Friday night - when I heard he’d done that, I thought it was pathetic. I really did.
And then over the weekend, he started playing bad taste music over the loudspeaker system - Barry Manilow, James Blunt - and started asking people for other suggestions on social media. It just makes you cringe, doesn’t it?
This is the guy who, as Speaker of New Zealand’s House of Representatives - that’s the official title - he is the most senior person at Parliament. Not just IN Parliament, AT Parliament - so he’s pretty much in charge of everything. 
And, in my honest opinion, the way he’s behaved since this thing started - but, particularly, over the weekend - it shows to me that he is not the person who should be in charge of trying to bring this thing to an end.
Sure, some of the protesters are an embarrassment - with all their conspiracy theories and nonsense - but none of them, as far as I’m concerned, are as embarrassing as Trevor Mallard.
He, of course, thinks he’s got every right to be doing what he’s doing because the occupation of Parliament’s grounds is illegal.
But it’s backfired big time - with the protesters singing and dancing to his stupid music and, 'guess what Trevor, they’re still there!' And they look like they're not going anywhere fast.
Former Speaker David Carter was on Early Edition this morning - he said Trevor Mallard is harming New Zealand’s international reputation, describing his behaviour as “boorish and childish”.
David Carter says the Speaker - because he’s so senior - is his own boss. But he thinks it’s time for the Prime Minister and the National Party leader to step in and tell Mallard to pull his head in.
He says Mallard has banned MPs from speaking to the protesters and he’s tried to ban the media from speaking to the protesters.
And he says Mallard’s weird behaviour is a significant factor in the protest getting out of hand the way it has. And I couldn’t agree more with David Carter. He is spot on.
The National Party and the ACT Party can’t believe what’s been happening either. They towed Mallard’s line pretty much all last week - ignoring the protesters and all that - but that unity is crumbling.
National’s Covid spokesperson, Chris Bishop, is saying today that people must be wondering what on Earth Mallard is up to, crowdsourcing songs from the internet and turning the sprinklers on at night.
And political expert Bryce Edwards is saying that throughout the whole thing Mallard has made incompetent decisions that have just made things worse. They’re the words he’s using: “incompetent decisions”.
Again, I couldn’t agree more.
The cops obviously think he’s balmy too. Although, the chief cop in Wellington put it a bit more politely saying the sprinklers and music “weren’t tactics they would endorse”.
Which, as one commentator has said today, is police code for saying “Give it a rest, Trevor”. 
But we don’t need to be as polite as the Superintendent, and we can say it exactly how it is. And that’s why I’m saying Trevor Mallard is behaving like an idiot. I would say he is an idiot outright - but I’m not qualified to make any sort of diagnosis, on that front. But I know he’s acting like one. And, as far as I’m concerned, he has...

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.