PM to Mallard: Control your anger

Trevor Mallard. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Labour MP Trevor Mallard "needs to work on his anger issues", says Prime Minister John Key.

He was speaking after Mr Mallard posted an angry blog repeating claims that the PM was not telling the truth, and accusing the Speaker of bias for ejecting him from Parliament.

Mr Mallard was thrown out on Tuesday for refusing to apologise after calling out, "Your nose is growing", to Mr Key.

He reacted angrily to Speaker Lockwood Smith's decision to eject him, shouting, "That's outrageous", before turning at the door and calling, "That's the worst decision you've ever made."

Later, Mr Mallard wrote a blog repeating his assertion Mr Key was not telling the truth and describing Dr Smith's decision as the "most blatantly biased decision of the year".

He also said Labour was considering moving a motion of no confidence in the Speaker - but later said other Labour MPs had since spoken to him "and we have decided to wait for a better example".

Questioning the impartiality of the Speaker can result in serious sanctions, including contempt of Parliament - but Mr Mallard appears to have escaped and the episode was not raised in Parliament yesterday.

When asked if threatening a vote of no confidence was going too far, Mr Key said Mr Mallard needed to "get on top of his anger issues".

"Yesterday, he had a simple course of action, which was to withdraw and apologise and make his own point. Instead, he blew a fu-fu valve."

Mr Mallard's initial calls of "your nose is growing" were sparked by Mr Key's refusal to answer Labour MP Pete Hodgson's questions about his reasons for losing faith in minister Richard Worth, who resigned.

The PM had objected to Mr Mallard's comment, saying he was "accusing me of being a liar". Parliament's rules forbid questioning the truthfulness of a member.