Hobbs confirms 'class clown' status

By AUDREY YOUNG Political reporter

Former headmistress Marian Hobbs confirmed her own status yesterday as the "class clown" of cabinet. But she says she is deadly serious about her job and promises to improve.

A minder may be employed to make sure she does. "I'm actually doing the job well. I am not presenting as doing the job well, and that is the difference," she told National Radio yesterday with the sort of candour that lands her in trouble.

"I am not good with details in the public eye and answering questions fast. I know I have to change and do something about it because compared to other jobs I've done, presentation is almost everything."

Marian Hobbs said she was up to it, despite concerns about gaffes that have earned her the nick-name of Boo-Boo. "I believe I can do the job. If I didn't, I would offer to step aside."

She was non-committal about suggestions that Prime Minister Helen Clark wants her to get a super-adviser, like her own top adviser Heather Simpson, to help get on top of her portfolios.

There had been some talk of an adviser, she said. "That's on hold. I'm not quite sure where it's at."

Helen Clark is in London, then goes to Turkey and Singapore. Marian Hobbs' failings aren't so bad that they can't wait until she returns.

It is understood Helen Clark would like to see a seasoned operator in the office of the inexperienced minister, someone who could assist with policy as well as give frank advice on her presentation. Several other ministers have such advisers, including Michael Cullen, Pete Hodgson, and Trevor Mallard.

Marian Hobbs landed three normally innocuous portfolios which have developed political demons: broadcasting (Hawkesby payout, quotas, TV ads); biosecurity (snakes, bee mites); and environment (genetic engineering).

"I came in and I got hit between the eyes," she said.

Each controversy has developed in spite of Marian Hobbs, not because of her, but her public handling of them is not impressing the Prime Minister or colleagues.

Marian Hobbs' originality, ebullience and wise-cracking make her a stand-out MP. But the qualities go only so far when the Prime Minister is from the school of unflappable, firm, focused politics.

Marian Hobbs knows her reputation. "I know I look like a class clown but I'm deadly serious," she told the Evening Post yesterday morning.

By the afternoon, she had decided to try to shut down the controversy over her own style and would not speak to television or the Herald.

A spokesman did not believe it was because of the Herald's critical report of her at Monday's post-cabinet press conference. There Helen Clark was clearly unhappy at Marian Hobbs' wise-cracking suggestion that MPs were not intelligent enough to handle the issue of genetic engineering, at her forgetting the catchy name of the act under which she operates as environment minister, "Hazno", and at her disagreeing with colleague Pete Hodgson.

An early cabinet reshuffle is not considered likely. But Marian Hobbs must be considered to have been put on notice by Helen Clark to lift her public game or face demotion.