Helen Clark

The Right Honourable  Helen Elizabeth Clark  MP, SSI
37th Prime Minister of New Zealand
In office 5 December 1999 – 19 November 2008
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Governor General	Michael Hardie Boys Silvia Cartwright Anand Satyanand
Deputy	Jim Anderton Michael Cullen
Preceded by	Jenny Shipley
Succeeded by	John Key
27th Leader of the Opposition
In office 1 December 1993 – 5 December 1999
Deputy	Michael Cullen
Preceded by	Mike Moore
Succeeded by	Jenny Shipley
11th Deputy Prime Minister of New Zealand
In office 8 August 1989 – 2 November 1990
Prime Minister	Geoffrey Palmer Mike Moore
Preceded by	Geoffrey Palmer
Succeeded by	Don McKinnon
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Mount Albert
Incumbent
Assumed office  28 November 1981
Preceded by	Warren Freer
Majority	14,749[1]
Born	26 February 1950 (1950-02-26) (age 59) Hamilton, New Zealand
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Peter Davis
Occupation	Politician
Religion	Agnostic[2]

Helen Elizabeth Clark (born 26 February 1950) is a New Zealand politician who served as the 37th Prime Minister in three successive terms from 1999 to 2008. She led the Labour Party until it lost the 2008 general election. Clark is currently Labour's foreign affairs spokeswoman and MP for the Mount Albert electorate which she has held since 1981.^[3] Forbes magazine ranked her 20th most powerful woman in the world in 2006.^[4]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Member of Parliament 2.1 Cabinet Minister 2.2 Leader of the Opposition 3 Prime Minister 3.1 Social policy 3.2 Economic growth 3.3 Stable government 3.4 Crime-rate 3.5 Foreign policy 4 Controversies 5 Honours 6 Biography 7 References 7.1 Notes 7.2 Citations 8 See also 9 Further reading 10 External links 11 Political offices

Early life

Clark was the eldest of four daughters of a Waikato farming family. Her mother, Margaret, of Irish birth, was a primary school teacher. Her father, George, a farmer, supported the National Party at the 1981 election. Clark studied at Te Pahu Primary School, at Epsom Girls' Grammar School in Auckland and at the University of Auckland, where she majored in politics and graduated with an MA (Honours) in 1974. Her thesis focused on rural political behaviour and representation.^[5]

Helen Clark was a junior lecturer in political studies at the University of Auckland from 1973 to 1975, studied abroad on a University Grants Committee post-graduate scholarship in 1976, and then lectured in political studies at Auckland again while undertaking her PhD (which she never completed) from 1977 until her election to Parliament in 1981.

She married sociologist Peter Davis, her partner of five years at that time, shortly before that election (under pressure from some members of the New Zealand Labour Party to marry despite her own feelings about marriage – her biography reports that she cried throughout the ceremony, although she attributes that to a headache).^[6] Dr Davis currently^[update] is a professor in medical sociology and heads the Sociology Department at the University of Auckland.

As a teenager Clark became politically active, protesting against the Vietnam War and campaigning against foreign military bases in New Zealand. She has declared herself agnostic.^[2]

Clark has worked actively in the New Zealand Labour Party for most of her life. She served as a member of the Party's New Zealand executive from 1978 until September 1988 and again from April 1989. She chaired the University of Auckland Princes Street branch of the Labour Party during her studies, becoming active alongside future Labour Party politicians including Richard Prebble, David Caygill, Margaret Wilson, and Richard Northey. Clark held the positions of president of the Labour Youth Council, executive member of the Party's Auckland Regional Council, secretary of the Labour Women's Council and member of the Policy Council.

She represented the New Zealand Labour Party at the congresses of the Socialist International and of the Socialist International Women in 1976, 1978, 1983 and 1986, at an Asia-Pacific Socialist Organisation Conference held in Sydney in 1981, and at the Socialist International Party Leaders' Meeting in Sydney in 1991.

Member of Parliament

Parl.	Electorate	List Pos.	Party
40th	Mt Albert		Labour
41st	Mt Albert		Labour
42nd	Mt Albert		Labour
43rd	Mt Albert		Labour
44th	Mt Albert		Labour
45th	Owairaka	1	Labour
46th	Mt Albert	1	Labour
47th	Mt Albert	1	Labour
48th	Mt Albert	1	Labour
49th	Mt Albert	1	Labour

Helen Clark first gained election to the New Zealand House of Representatives in the 1981 general election as one of four women who entered Parliament on that occasion. In winning the Mount Albert electorate in Auckland, she became the second woman elected to represent an Auckland electorate, and the seventeenth woman elected to the New Zealand Parliament. At the 2005 general election Clark won 66% of the electorate votes, or 20,918 votes with a 14,749 majority.^[1] During her first term in the House (1981 - 1984), she became a member of the Statutes Revision Committee. In her second term (1984 - 1987), she chaired the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Select Committee on Disarmament and Arms Control, both of which combined with the Defence Select Committee in 1985 to form a single committee.

Cabinet Minister

In 1987, Clark became a Cabinet Minister in the Fourth Labour Government, led by David Lange (1984-1989), Geoffrey Palmer (1989-1990) and Mike Moore (1990), first as Minister of Housing and as Minister of Conservation, then as Minister of Health and later as Deputy Prime Minister.

Clark served as Minister of Conservation from August 1987 until January 1989 and as Minister of Housing from August 1987 until August 1989. She became Minister of Health in January 1989 and Minister of Labour and Deputy Prime Minister in August 1989. She chaired the Cabinet Social Equity Committee and became a member of the Cabinet Policy Committee, of the Cabinet Committee on Chief Executives, of the Cabinet Economic Development and Employment Committee, of the Cabinet Expenditure Review Committee, of the Cabinet State Agencies Committee, of the Cabinet Honours Appointments and Travel Committee and of the Cabinet Domestic and External Security Committee.

Leader of the Opposition

From October 1990 until December 1993 Clark held the posts of Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Opposition spokesperson for Health and Labour and member of the Social Services Select Committee and of the Labour Select Committee. After the National Party won the 1993 general election with a majority of one seat, Clark challenged Mike Moore for the leadership of the parliamentary Labour Party and became Leader of the Opposition on 1 December 1993. She led the Opposition during the National-led Governments of Jim Bolger (1990-1997) and Jenny Shipley (1997-1999).

Prime Minister

Main article: Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand

When the New Zealand Labour Party came into office as part of a coalition following the 1999 election, Clark became the second female Prime Minister of New Zealand and the first to have won office at an election. (The previous Prime Minister, Jenny Shipley took office as the result of a mid-term party-leadership challenge.) During her term in office women have held a number of prominent offices in New Zealand, such as the Queen, Governor-General, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chief Justice.

Clark has held the positions of Prime Minister and of Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage from 1999 until 2008. She also had ministerial responsibility for the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service and for Ministerial Services. Her particular areas of interest included social policy and international affairs.

As Leader of the Labour Party, Clark negotiated the formation of successive minority coalition governments. The first such coalition (1999-2002) linked the Labour Party with the Alliance Party (1999). The coalition with the Alliance Party collapsed in 2002. In consequence, Clark called an early election and then went into coalition with Jim Anderton's Progressive Party, a spin-off of the Alliance Party (2002, with parliamentary confidence and supply coming from United Future and a "good-faith" agreement with the Green Party). In 2005, following the election of that year, the Labour Party and the Progressive Party renewed their coalition, gaining supply-and-confidence support from both New Zealand First and United Future in exchange for giving the leaders of those parties ministerial positions outside Cabinet.

“	I think it's inevitable that New Zealand will become a republic and that would reflect the reality that New Zealand is a totally sovereign-independent 21st century nation 12,000 miles from the United Kingdom	”
— Prime Minister Helen Clark, [7]

Clark, like some other MPs and many New Zealanders (including some Labour Party members), supports New Zealand becoming a republic. Some critics of Clark's government have derided her support for a republic, arguing that the Prime Minister has no mandate for such a change.^[8] However, Clark's predecessor, National Prime Minister Jim Bolger also publicly indicated his support for a republic in 1994, during his tenure as Prime Minister. Clark's term in office saw a number of alleged moves towards a republic, under her government's policy of building national identity. Examples include the abolition of appeals to the Privy Council and the setting up of the Supreme Court of New Zealand, the abolition of titular Knighthood and Damehood honours, and the abolition of the title "Queen's Counsel" (replaced by "Senior Counsel").

On 24 July 2008 Clark passed Sir Robert Muldoon to become New Zealand's sixth-longest-serving Prime Minister, and on 27 October 2008 she passed Edward Stafford's combined terms to become the 5th longest-serving Prime Minister.

On 8 February 2008, Clark became the longest serving leader of the Labour Party in its history (although some dispute exists over when Harry Holland became leader), having served for 14 years, 69 days,^[9][i], by 26 October 2008 she had passed Holland's longest possible term and her position as longest serving Labour Party leader was put beyond doubt. Clark conceded defeat following the 2008 general election to John Key and announced that she was standing down as Labour Party leader.^[10] On 11 November 2008 Clark was replaced by Phil Goff as leader of the Labour Party.^[11]

As Prime Minister, Helen Clark was a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an International network of current and former women presidents and prime ministers whose mission is to mobilize the highest-level women leaders globally for collective action on issues of critical importance to women and equitable development.

Social policy

Clark's government brought in significant changes to the New Zealand welfare system, such as introducing child tax credits in the Working for Families package. Her government also changed industrial-relations law and raised the minimum wage six times in as many years. Changes have also occurred in tertiary-education financing, with the abolition of interest on student-loans – firstly for those currently studying, then extended to all borrowers living in New Zealand and to education in general with the proposed implementation of the Schools Plus policy. Other changes introduced during Clark's term in office include legal provision for civil unions, the introduction of 14 weeks' paid parental leave, and the Property (Relationships) Act, which treats property division after the breakup of de facto relationships the same as after the breakup of legal marriages.^[12] Some of these measures, though initiated by other members of parliament or political parties, nevertheless gained the government support.

Economic growth

Some commentators have praised Helen Clark (along with the Minister of Finance Michael Cullen) for overseeing a period of sustained and stable economic growth, with an increase in employment that has seen a gradual lowering of the unemployment rate to 3.6%. Although her critics acknowledge these factors, many such critics maintain that the growth has come about as the result of wider economic factors, and that increases in the sickness benefit have caused (at least in part) the decrease in unemployment. On the other hand, total beneficiary numbers (a measurement that includes both unemployment- and sickness- beneficiaries) shrunk during Helen Clark's time in office. Other economic concerns for Clark's government include a persistently high current-account deficit and an unofficial poverty-rate of about twenty percent.

Stable government

“	Our prime minister has been rather unique in being a great lover of the out of doors and she's always off climbing something, doing something exciting and I think that New Zealanders admire that. That is sort of the way of life that they have come to accept in our little old island in the south seas. But Helen as been particularly strong in this respect. So long may she reign.	”
—- Sir Edmund Hillary[13]

Even though some commentators saw stable government within the relatively new MMP electoral system as unlikely, Clark's supporters credit her with maintaining two terms of stable MMP government, as well as with forming the current government given the relatively close election-result. In 2006, Forbes ranked Clark 20th of "The 100 Most Powerful Women" in the world,^[4] and then at 56th in 2008^[14].

Crime-rate

New Zealand Police statistics report a drop in the rate of recorded offences by population over the period of Clark's premiership, which continued the trend shown in years prior to her becoming Prime Minister.^[15] This corresponds with a survey of victims of crime, which reported very little change in the number of victims of crime between 1995 and 2000, despite a slight increase in population.^[16] New Zealand crime-figures for 2005/2006 showed an increase in a recorded crime over the previous financial year, but rates remained lower than in 1999.^[17]

Foreign policy

Main article: Foreign relations of New Zealand

During Clark's terms of office, New Zealand pursued what she and her supporters call an independent foreign policy. New Zealand retains a nuclear-free zone status, a stance also taken by the National Party, the then-opposition, (possibly at the cost of a free-trade agreement with the United States of America), and refused to participate in the Iraq invasion without UN sanction.

In March 2003, referring to the U.S. led coalition's actions in the Iraq War, Clark told the newspaper Sunday Star Times that, "I don't think that September 11 under a Gore presidency would have had this consequence for Iraq." She later sent a letter to Washington apologising for any offence that her comment may have caused.^[18]

In a report in the People's Daily, Chinese President Jiang Zemin referred to Clark as an "old friend". He hoped to "establish bilateral long-term and stable overall cooperative relations with a healthy development geared to the 21st century", and "broad prospects for bilateral economic cooperation". Clark had strongly supported China's entry into the WTO.^[19]

Controversies

In 1999, Clark was involved in a defamation case in the High Court of New Zealand with Auckland orthopaedic surgeon Joe Brownlee, resulting in Clark making an unreserved apology. The case centered on a press statement issued by Clark criticising Brownlee, triggered by a constituent's complaint over the outcome of a hip replacement. Clark admitted the criticism was unjustified in that the complication suffered by her constituent was rare, unforeseen and unavoidable.^[20]

In 2000, Labour MP Chris Carter investigated the background of one of Clark's Cabinet colleagues, Māori Affairs Minister Dover Samuels. During the investigation, Clark referred to John Yelash as a murderer. However, the court system had convicted Yelash of manslaughter. Yelash sued Clark for defamation, resulting in an out-of-court settlement.

Clark signed a painting for a charity-auction that someone else had painted. A political controversy arose about it, and after it emerged that she had not painted it, Opposition politicians referred the matter to the New Zealand Police. The Police found evidence for a prima facie case of forgery, but determined that it was not in the public interest to prosecute.^[21] A staff member bought the painting back and destroyed it.

In 2000, the then Police Commissioner, Peter Doone, resigned after the Sunday Star-Times alleged he had prevented the breath testing of his partner Robyn, who had driven the car they occupied, by telling the officer "that won't be necessary". Both Doone and the officer involved denied this happened. Doone sued the Sunday Star-Times for defamation in 2005 but the paper revealed they had checked the story with Clark. She confirmed this, but denied that she had made attempts to get Doone to resign and defended being the source as "by definition I cannot leak". Helen Clark also responded by saying that National's friends had funded Mr Doone's defamation-suit.^[22] Opinion on the significance of this incident varied.^[23]

In 2005, a motorcade involving police, Diplomatic Protection Squad, and Ministerial Services staff reached speeds of up to 172 km/h when taking Clark and Cabinet Minister Jim Sutton from Waimate to Christchurch Airport so she could attend a rugby union match in Wellington. The courts subsequently convicted the drivers involved for driving offences, but appeals resulted in the quashing of these convictions in December 2005 and August 2006.^[24] Clark said that she was busy working in the back seat and had no influence or role in the decision to speed and did not realise the speed of her vehicle.^[25]

Some observers criticised Clark for some of Labour's election-campaign spending during the 2005 election campaign. Investigations found that the Labour Party, like all parties represented in Parliament except for Jim Anderton's Progressives, had illegally spent parliamentary funds on its election campaign. Labour had spent $768,000 illegally, and this meant Labour also exceeded the legal limits for campaign-spending, the only party to have done so. Despite disagreeing with the Auditor-General's conclusion, Clark announced Labour would refund the public purse and it did so in 2007. See 2005 New Zealand election funding controversy.

In 2007, Clark's Government introduced the Electoral Finance Act, which placed restrictions on the spending of lobby-groups, who must now register with a government agency if they are spending over a certain amount^[26]. So far, the Act has been highly controversial and has attracted severe criticism from organizations such as the New Zealand Herald for its alleged attack on freedom of speech.^[27]

Honours

The government of the Solomon Islands awarded Clark (together with John Howard) the Star of the Solomon Islands in 2005 in recognition of New Zealand's role in restoring law and order in the Solomon Islands.^[28] This award allows her to use the post-nominal letters "SSI".^[29]

In January 2008 Clark won the United Nations Environment Programme Champions of the Earth award in recognition of the government’s promotion of sustainability initiatives. ^[30]

Helen Clark is an Honorary Member of The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.^[31]

Biography

• Edwards, Brian (2001), Helen: Portrait of A Prime Minister, Auckland, [N.Z.]: Exisle Publishing, ISBN 0-908988-20-6 

References

Notes

Citations

See also

• Politics of New Zealand
• New Zealand
• List of Nuclear-Free Future Award recipients

Further reading

• Kerr, Allan R. (c.2006), Helen Clark: Prime Minister of New Zealand (3rd ed.), Masterton, [N.Z.]: Capital Letters Pub., ISBN 1-877-17757-1 

This is a book intended for children.

• Miller, Raymond; Mintrom, Michael (eds.) (c.2006), Political leadership in New Zealand, Auckland, [N.Z.]: Auckland University Press, ISBN 1-869-40358-4 

A paper by John Henderson and Seishi Gomibuchi is entitled: "The leadership styles of Helen Clark and Don Brash."

• Williams, Tony (2006), 101 ingenious Kiwis: how New Zealanders changed the world, Auckland, [N.Z.]: Reed, ISBN 9780790011103 

Helen Clark is profiled in a chapter entitled: " Helen Clark: first elected woman prime minister."

External links

• New Zealand Labour Party page for Helen Clark
• Helen Clark at the Internet Movie Database
• Prime Minister Helen Clark with Council of Women World Leaders

Political offices

Assembly seats
Preceded by Warren Freer	Member of Parliament for Mt Albert 1981 – present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Mike Moore	Leader of the Opposition 1993 – 1999	Succeeded by Jenny Shipley
	Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party 1993 – 2008	Succeeded by Phil Goff
Preceded by Jenny Shipley	Prime Minister of New Zealand 1999 – 2008	Succeeded by John Key

 

Prime Minister of New Zealand
Sewell | Fox | Stafford | Domett | Whitaker | Weld | Waterhouse | Vogel | Pollen | Atkinson | Grey | Hall | Stout | Ballance | Seddon | Hall-Jones | Ward | Mackenzie | Massey | Bell | Coates | Forbes | Savage | Fraser | Holland | Holyoake | Nash | Marshall | Kirk | Rowling | Muldoon | Lange | Palmer | Moore | Bolger | Shipley | Clark | Key

Persondata
NAME	Clark, Helen Elizabeth
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Prime Minister of New Zealand, politician, academic
DATE OF BIRTH	26 February 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hamilton, New Zealand
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH