Few MPs have had more headlines, rightly or wrongly, than Labour's Trevor Mallard. In a career spanning a record 35 years in Parliament - including 29 consecutively - there have been allegations of ticket-scalping, a moa restoration policy, and more recently the infamous sprinkler incident. Here is a summary of
Speaker Trevor Mallard's highs and lows: From Covid protest and Macarena to moa restoration and making Parliament dog and child-friendly
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Speaker Trevor Mallard holding Willow-Jean Prime's baby in the house in Parliament in 2017. Photo / Parliament TV
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Loved and loathed, Mallard is off to Ireland in the new year as New Zealand's Ambassador to the Emerald Isle, 38 years after he was first elected to Parliament.
Today caps off a memorable career full of highs and lows, each with its own quirks, for a politician described as everything from "attack dog" to "father of the house".
Mallard was first elected as MP for Hamilton West in 1984 under David Lange's Fourth Labour Government before losing in 1990. Three years later he returned, winning the Pencarrow electorate - now Hutt South.
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Under the fifth Labour government of Helen Clark, he went on to hold multiple ministerial portfolios including decent stints in education and sport.
Under Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's leadership he stepped into the role of refereeing political debate as Speaker of the House.
At each stage of his career though, Mallard made sure he was never far from the limelight.
Moa in Wainuiomata
Mallard was known for his "silly" comments.
In 2014, he suggested moa up to 1.8m tall could one day be roaming the Rimutaka Forest Park above Wainuiomata again, to much ridicule from both his colleagues and then prime minister John Key.
Mallard extolled the breakthroughs in science around bringing back extinct species.
"I know that this all sounds a bit like a scene from Jurassic Park, but it is going to happen," Mallard said.
"I'm absolutely certain that at some point in the future, a whole pile of species that are currently extinct will be brought back to life ... The moa will be a goer, but we're talking to 50 to 100 years out."
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Labour leader David Cunliffe did little to support his caucus colleague's suggestion: "The moa's not a goer."
Key joked that there were a few moas in the Labour caucus already, while senior minister Steven Joyce called it "inspired thinking".
Regardless of how unlikely (very) the scientific dream was to come off, Mallard managed to capture media attention and inject "a bit of silly" into everyone's lives, as then-Herald senior writer, and current political editor, Claire Trevett wrote at the time.
I'm no ticket scalper
In 2012 Mallard came under fire after making a healthy profit off several students by on-selling tickets to a sold-out Homegrown concert in a Trade Me auction.
Tickets for the festival had a face value of $95 each but Mallard sold his four tickets for $656 - a $276 profit.
Mallard was accused of ticket-scalping for the event and hypocrisy, after as minister for sport and recreation initiating the Major Events Management Act 2007 which tightened the rules around on-selling tickets with fines up to $5000.
Mallard said he had not purchased the tickets to make a profit, and offered to refund the money. Music student Laura Signal, 19 at the time, suggested he donate his profit to New Zealand music instead.
Scuffle with Tau Henare, and a day in court
The incident that Mallard called "absolutely wrong" and "one of the most stupid things I've ever done in my life" occurred in 2007 with then-National MP Tau Henare.
Mallard, then a Cabinet Minister, took a swing at Henare outside the debating chamber after Henare taunted him about his separation from his wife.
The pair got into a scuffle, having to be separated by a parliamentary staffer.
Police declined to investigate, but accountant Graham McCready launched his own private prosecution.
Mallard eventually pleaded guilty to fighting in a public place and agreed to pay $500 to the Salvation Army's Bridge drug and alcohol programme.
It was far from Mallard's first run-in with the law, however. Prior to becoming an MP, Mallard was arrested in 1977 during an anti-SIS bill protest and again during the 1981 Springbok protests.
Political 'attack dog'
Mallard, regarded by some as a political "attack dog", was of course himself not shy of verbally jabbing political opponents over personal issues - even marital ones.
In late 2006 he interjected in the House, hinting that then-National leader Don Brash was having an affair with Business Roundtable deputy chairwoman Diane Foreman.
Brash soon after went on leave and his marriage broke up the following year.
Then-prime minister Helen Clark said she would like to "taser" Mallard over his comments.
Mallard consequently gained a reputation over the years for being an "attack dog" and even a fall guy, with suggestions his antics were used to divert political attention at certain moments.
Education Minister - 1999 to 2005
Mallard held 13 ministerial portfolios, the longest of which was education, for which he was also not short of controversy.
Mallard drew strong criticism from teachers' unions, including the PPTA, especially in his first term during a long-running strike action over salaries.
In his second term, he was also under fire for a programme of school closures - almost 90 schools across the country, including his own primary school in Wainuiomata. Mallard eventually called an abrupt halt to the closures after a heavy backlash from parents and teachers.
Beer bottles in 'uncomfortable places'
Mallard served as Minister of Sport and Recreation between 2002 and 2007.
In April 2002, Mallard said he would like to ram a Heineken beer bottle up International Rugby Board boss Vernon Pugh's and Australian Rugby Union boss John O'Neill's "particularly uncomfortable places", after New Zealand lost its hosting rights in the lead-up to the 2003 Rugby World Cup.
Mallard later apologised saying he "mixed up" his passion for rugby with his ministerial role.
Bully review and $330,000 sexual assault claims
Just over a year after becoming Speaker of the House in 2017, Mallard launched a review of the bullying culture of staff in Parliament with investigator Debbie Francis.
The review itself uncovered multiple allegations of sexual assault and bullying and led to a major shift in culture.
But it was his handling of allegations within that report that would see $330,000 in taxpayer money paid out and calls for his removal as Speaker.
Mallard made claimed a staffer had raped another staffer in media interviews on May 22, 2019, after the release of the Francis report into bullying and harassment at Parliament.
After the former staffer was stood down, Mallard said that a threat to safety had been removed from the premises.
Mallard's false claim cost taxpayers more than $330,000 - including more than $175,000 in legal fees and a $158,000 ex-gratia payment to the former staffer to settle a defamation claim - and led to the National Party calling for him to resign.
He also apologised to the former staffer for incorrectly using the term "rape" as defined in the Crimes Act.
The former staffer had been the subject of complaints from two women but the complaints were not of rape. An initial investigation into his conduct found no wrongdoing.
Mallard however then told the House that two complainants had accused the former staffer of sexual misconduct, and overall there were three women, three incidents and "at least two perpetrators of serious sexual assault".
Opposition MPs grilled him over the claims, with the debate getting so heated Ardern said she had "serious concerns" about Mallard's conduct, and Minister Chris Hipkins said all MPs involved should "step back".
Antics in the House - rivalries, ties and babies
The Speaker's role includes playing referee during Parliament debates, staying politically neutral and maintaining and administering Parliament's grounds.
Over his time as Speaker, he developed a somewhat controversial reputation with at times heated discussions with MPs, none more so than National's Chris Bishop. Their rivalry in fact harks back to their contested Hutt South electorate.
Upon news Mallard was retiring from his role as Speaker in August, Bishop had one word: "Good."
Mallard also oversaw significant developments in making Parliament a little less formal.
One of his prime targets was ties. He had long viewed them as outdated and in February 2021 ruled they would no longer be compulsory at Parliament.
Of course, it was not without controversy.
The steps to a ban were in fact instigated by Te Pāti Māori MP Rawiri Waititi, who just months after being elected in 2017 refused to wear what he called a "colonial noose" in the House, replacing it with a hei tiki.
Mallard kicked Waititi out of the House for breaching the rules, but after he repeated the actions the following day remained silent.
Mallard later said Waititi's stunt had helped "focus the issue", including drawing media attention across the globe.
But Mallard's tenure has not always been controversial, and some of his initiatives have drawn wide praise.
As a big fan of dogs, Mallard brought in new rules to allow them throughout the halls of power. His own dog Violet once got so excited at meeting police puppies she urinated under his desk.
Mallard, who has several children and is now a grandfather, gained international attention for his steps to make Parliament more "baby-friendly" in November 2017.
Images of him feeding and cradling Labour MP Willow-Jean Prime's baby Heeni at the time while sitting in the Speaker's seat travelled across the globe.
He later did the same for Labour MP Tāmati Coffey's infant son Tūtānekai Smith-Coffey during a parliamentary debate, and even on his last day in the role was spotted cradling an infant.
He also reinterpreted the leave arrangements to make it easier for new parents, updating the family room to have baby-feeding and changing facilities, and spent $500,000 on a new playground at Parliament as part of a range of efforts to make Parliament more child-friendly.
Covid-19 protests of 2022
On the controversy front, Mallard may have saved his best for last.
In February hundreds and then thousands of people protesting the Government's Covid-19 response camped out on Parliament grounds. Mallard asked police to remove them, but they deferred, citing the risk of riot.
For nearly a month they built a village, rife with misinformation and anti-government tropes - and even Covid-19, and yet still police refused to make a move.
Seemingly impotent, Mallard utilised the few powers he had remaining.
On a Friday evening he set off the sprinklers, drenching protest camps before they themselves innovated digging trenches in the sodden lawn.
Mallard's next move was to install loudspeakers outside Parliament playing on repeat a mixture of Barry Manilow's hit Macarena and children's favourite Baby Shark, interspersed with Government Covid-19 messaging.
The latter moves drew international attention including from James Blunt, who joked his songs could be more effective - Mallard gave it a go.
Some found it amusing and others authoritarian. Either way, it drew the ire of some Opposition MPs who said it was unprofessional and potentially stoked unrest. They again lodged a notice of no confidence in him as Speaker.
He also drew condemnation after his office issued trespass notices to some of those at the protest - 144 for those arrested, and seven more to other "persons of interest" including at least five former MPs.
Mallard quickly withdrew the trespass orders, which included not only former deputy prime minister New Zealand First leader Winston Peters Peters, but former Act leader Rodney Hide, former Māori Party co-leader Marama Fox and NZ First List MP Darroch Ball.
A court ruling today found his behaviour was "unreasonable and irrational".
Mallard will be replaced on the Labour Party list by Soraya Peke-Mason - and that will mean that for the first time ever, Parliament will have as many women MPs as men.
After his final day in Parliament today, Mallard is expected to begin his posting in Dublin in January 2023.
