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Home , Helen Clark

political controversy Once unpopular, now lauded ... New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, 51, is a woman who speaks her mind and believes “Kiwi bashing” has to stop. PrimeYes minister At a time of heightened cross-Tasman tensions, she is a politician who breaks the mould. Helen Clark, New Zealand’s PM, is a woman who knows where she and her nation are going – and it’s not following Australia’s lead. By David

here is a place across the sea, the socio-economic ladder are beginning to in New Zealand – her opponents cast her as often the butt of our jokes, feel, at last, that someone in power is listening. the head of a cabal of “lesbians, husbandless certainly within full range of And at the apex of all this stands Helen women and feminist extremists”. our condescension, where Clark, a woman whose approval rating was “It’s Mike versus the Dyke,” read a placard the impossible seems to have once so disastrously low – between 2 and 6 brandished by Moore supporters at the time. occurred, or be in the process per cent – that it probably qualified her for Ms Clark was deeply offended, as you’d expect. Tof occurring. It is a place where nuclear the tag of “most disliked political leader in the “We’d just been through a suffrage centennial ships have been banned and where Western world”. Today, Ms Clark is arguably the year,” she said, “where there’d been a great deal desperate boat people are given safe most popular prime minister in New Zealand’s of congratulation about New Zealand being harbour. It is a place where apologies modern era, more popular than the legendary the first country to give women the vote [in are made to indigenous people, and or in their 1893]. At the end of the year, to have a woman compensation paid in full, many times over. heyday, which is saying something, given how leader who is credible painted as emerging It is a place where social objectives are back in indomitable both were in different ways. because she is a member of some sort of sect vogue and are being embodied in a range of And it is also saying something, given that is really quite appalling.” government policies. Ms Clark in no way fits the mould of what For the next few years, she fought off And, of course, it is a place run by women, might be expected of a woman in public life. insurrection within her own party, deep not for reasons of cheap tokenism, but For starters, she’s childless – by choice. “I’ve enmity from the business community and because, by and large, they are the best had a happy, fulfilling life and career,” she once outright hostility from sections of the media. people for the jobs. said. “There just hasn’t been the time in my Her poll ratings sunk below the Plimsoll Line, In this country, New Zealand, which we life to have kids.” Besides, her husband, medical inspiring sardonic local headlines such as: think we have the measure of in so many ways, sociologist Dr Peter Davis, is a “workaholic” “Helen Clark and the Dead Cat Effect”. the prime minister is a woman, as are nine of who, Ms Clark says, could also not make the In response, she reportedly hired an her ministers, her cabinet secretary and her necessary allowances for children. Secondly, image consultant (she cut her fringe, started chief of staff. The Opposition leader is a woman Ms Clark is a left-wing former academic with wearing lipstick and bought new designer – or was until last month – so too the governor- a passion for theatre and opera, in a country clothes) and she deliberately set out to court or general, the chief justice of the High Court, the mad about sport. Thirdly, her looks and body neutralise her enemies. She also began to grow head of Telecom and the head of the country’s language leave some people, particularly in confidence. most important museum. those older and more conservative, singularly “All our training was aimed at letting All in all, 30 per cent of the nation’s parliament unimpressed. people see the real Helen Clark,” observed is female, including the first democratically For many years she was seen as too austere, Brian Edwards, a broadcaster who gave Ms elected transsexual in the Western world. In the too icy, too remote. As a minister in previous Clark media advice during the late 1990s and space of just under two years, New Zealand has Labour governments she was criticised is now writing an official biography of her. become a showcase for the progressive society because her hairstyle was too “severe”, her “[That] Helen Clark ... was funny and gentle – a sort of social-democratic Shangri-la where teeth too crooked. In 1993, when she ousted and warm and enormously intelligent.” As well not only are women calling the shots, but Maori Mike Moore as Labour leader – thus becoming as possessed of a steely resolve. Three years ▲

are being heard, and others at the bottom of the first woman to head a major political party ago, Ms Clark spent four days braving ADAMS MONTY BY PHOTOGRAPHY

52 THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S WEEKLY – NOVEMBER 2001 freezing temperatures, altitude sickness and trying to travel home on their designated limited water supplies to climb to the top of national airline ... and it was then taken too far Mt Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain. in that not only was I prevented from leaving “You’re conscious you’re not getting on the Air New Zealand plane ... but when my any younger,” she said after completing the baggage and bookings were transferred to journey. “Most people I know did Kilimanjaro Qantas, they wouldn’t let the Qantas plane when they were in their 20s. I’m a month off leave while I was on it. my 49th birthday. If you’re going to do these “That’s where it tipped completely over things, you’ve got to get on with it.” By the the edge. Now, you know, let’s call a spade end of that year, she’d become New Zealand’s a spade here. I am a friendly Labour prime first elected woman prime minister. It was minister. I’ve been pro- all my life. the most stunning political transformation in I’ve worked very closely with the trade union living memory. movement in New Zealand. New Zealand is Australia’s longest and closest friend. That HELEN CLARK IS SITTING AT A should not have happened at all. And what table in her office on the ninth floor of the I think all New Zealanders take exception executive wing of Parliament House, in a to is that their prime minister was targeted, building known colloquially as the Beehive. New Zealand as a country, New Zealand as a Outside, the over harbour has people, was targeted by this outburst, when it turned a gun-metal grey. affected the actions of a company which had The 51-year-old Prime Minister strikes the very little New Zealand ownership in it, which visitor just as reports have indicated. Firm is controlled out of Singapore and had three handshake. Deep voice. Trademark red suit. Australian directors on the board. There’s been Bob of hair. Hunched shoulders. No-nonsense a lot of general Kiwi bashing ... and I’m sick manner. of it.” Ms Clark is well aware that The Weekly is (On the day of our meeting, Ms Clark’s interested in getting her thoughts on the government was clearing the way to three issues which have gripped Australia- nationalise the airline with a $727million New Zealand relations of late, namely the rescue package. Ms Clark will not comment Tampa affair, the international war on terrorism on the bail-out.) and Air New Zealand’s role in the collapse of Ansett. Not surprisingly, this political scientist LONG BEFORE HELEN CLARK BEGAN and fierce patriot also has her own agenda munching on political theory for breakfast, – to address head-on what she believes to be she was the eldest of four daughters growing the time-honoured practice of Kiwi-bashing up on a sheep and cattle farm in the North in Australia. Island’s district. Her parents, George This reached a crescendo, of course, in the and Margaret Clark, were staunch supporters middle of September when Air New Zealand’s of the conservative National Party. subsidiary, Ansett, collapsed in spectacular As a young girl, Ms Clark suffered Helen Clark at her fashion, leaving a trail of debt, half a billion from asthma and was hospitalised with home dollars worth of unmet staff entitlements pneumonia and a collapsed lung. “I with husband, and a rollcall of Australian towns without air was the weak one who stayed at home Dr Peter Davis. transport. while others rode horses,” she has said. Ms Clark happened to be returning home She was shy, but bright and determined, and was the same year she married the man whom “I need a support partner who can make [his] way around the house ... My husband does the cooking, but I go in and make sure everything’s right.”

the initiative.” distress.” driven by commercial imperatives and drafted from Europe at the time, after aborting a her forced convalescence helped instil in her she’d been living with, Peter Davis, currently By 1989, Ms Clark became the first woman Since coming to office two years ago, Helen new legislation for another settlement with business and investment mission following the an abiding love of books. a professor of public health in Christchurch. deputy prime minister in New Zealand, Clark’s government has set about dressing the the Maori. “I think if New Zealand has anything terrorist attacks on New York and Washington As a teenager, she boarded at Epsom Ms Clark was to freely admit later that the two albeit of a deeply unpopular government. wounds. Pensions are up, rents to offer the world,” Ms Clark says, “it may D.C. She flew straight into the biggest trans- Girls Grammar in Auckland, before going to only married in order to avoid the inevitable Throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s, New Zealand, are down, paid paternity leave is on the way, actually be in how the descendants of a settler Tasman brouhaha since Trevor Chappell’s Auckland University, where she completed political gossip. Today, their work lives keep first under Labour, then under consecutive workers’ rights have been restored in certain population are dealing with reconciliation notorious under-arm bowling incident two a Master of Arts degree in political science. them in separate cities until Thursday evening conservative governments, had been areas, spending on health and education has with the descendants of indigenous people.” decades ago. Touching down at Melbourne’s It was during these years that she became when they return to their renovated Auckland transformed from a virtual into been increased, as have income tax rates for I ask Ms Clark whether she thinks New Tullamarine airport, Ms Clark’s Air New Zealand active in the great political causes of the day: villa. Ms Clark describes her husband’s role in a free-market nirvana. Never a supporter of those in the highest bracket, tertiary fees have Zealand has become a fairer, more humane plane was immediately picketed by angry opposition to the , apartheid in her life as “very supportive”. the radical economic reforms, Ms Clark now been capped and tariff cuts have been frozen society because of the number of women Ansett workers and prevented from leaving. She South Africa, French nuclear testing in the “I mean, I really need a support partner says they left the country deeply traumatised. for five years. occupying prominent roles. “I have no doubt,” only managed to get home after a helicopter Pacific and the woeful treatment of New who can make [his] way around the house, do “It did tremendous damage to the fabric of In addition, the government has put the she replies, “that the significant numbers transferred her to an RAAF base in Victoria, where Zealand’s indigenous population. She became the shopping, do the cooking,” she tells me. Ms the community and shattered a lot of people’s brakes on the rampant corporatisation or of women in the she was picked up by a NZ Orion a postgraduate scholar and lecturer, as well as Clark reveals she hasn’t cooked for years. “My lives,” she says. privatisation of airlines, railways, banking and have had an impact on the priorities for military aircraft. a textbook radical. husband actually does the cooking, but I go in “You’ve got to remember that when telecommunications. It has also launched an governments, and on legislation.” On this cool, Wellington evening, the Prime Ms Clark had joined the in and make sure everything’s right. I make sure agricultural subsidies were withdrawn inquiry into genetically modified food – the Although drafted more than 15 years ago, Minister is still seething about the incident. 1971. A decade later, she became the first he doesn’t burn the chops and sometimes I virtually overnight [in 1984-85], we had a lot first of its kind in the world; ordered the state- NZ’s overwhelmingly popular anti-nuclear “There was abuse of ordinary New Zealanders woman MP elected in Auckland for 40 years. It say, `That’s not how you do it’, but he takes of suicides in farming communities, a lot of owned television channels to stop being legislation is a manifestation, she believes, ▲

54 THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S WEEKLY – NOVEMBER 2001 of this more feminised society. “There’s huge would have escorted it in.” and catering. And new kinds of women came support from women [for this position],” she Ms Clark is keen to point out that while New into the party ... [women] who wanted to be says. New Zealand was, of course, suspended Zealand has changed its defence priorities, this politically active and involved in feminism.” from the ANZUS treaty by America in 1986, does not prevent it from still being a responsible For so long the outsider, Helen Clark after the Labour Government banned nuclear- international citizen. In fact, the country has 13 appears to be relishing the opportunity armed and powered ships from visiting New international deployments in peace-keeping to re-fashion New Zealand in her own Zealand ports. As chair of the Foreign Affairs roles, as well as a contingent of crack SAS troops image. Asked how Kiwi men feel about and Defence Select Committee at the time, bound for the Middle East. all the changes taking place around Ms Clark was a chief architect of the policy. It “From the outset, New Zealand said it them and New Zealand’s Prime Minister earned her a Danish peace prize that year. “We would help in any way it could [against the war erupts into deep and mischievous laughter. were ahead of our time,” she says with obvious on terrorism],” she says. “[In fact] it is one of the “Oh, totally brow-beaten and hen-pecked,” pride, “but perhaps that’s our role.” very few countries in the world to have offered she replies. “[But no] seriously, I think men are As it would appear again today, with a military contribution.” pretty positive [about what is happening]. the world’s (mainly male) political leaders By comparison to Australia, however, New “People take a while to get used to attempting to assert their leadership credentials Zealand’s involvement would be modest. “I your new roles – the different image of opposition leader, the different image “New Zealand often appears ... more secure, of prime minister. But once you’ve established the precedent there’s no looking back. I mean, confident and independent than Australia.” the things that were said will never be said again. xxxxxxxxxxxxxx through a commitment to an international think we are less bellicose [than Australia],” “Someone’s got to break the glass ceiling, xxxxxxxxxxxxxx war on terrorism. Ms Clark’s views on a whole she says. “It may have something to do with and once it’s broken everyone else comes xxxxxxxxxxxxx range of security-related issues suggest a the difference in size, but if you are the size of clamouring up behind.” W less muscular, more female approach. Since New Zealand and as remote as New Zealand ... coming to power, she has emphasised New We are not even a small power. We’re no power Zealand’s peace-keeping missions rather than at all. That does influence your outlook on the its war-fighting capabilities. She’s also indicated world. it was “time to move on” from ANZUS. “Australia projects itself as a middle power “You’ve got to look at the context in which and that leads it to think it has a certain role to ANZUS was written,” she says. “[The] aftermath play in world affairs.” of World War II, threat from Japan, start of the For that reason, the PM says she could Cold War. These are different times.” Did she never imagine Australia adopting New not feel, though, that the world was a more Zealand’s anti-nuclear stance. “I think you perilous place after September 11? “The world feel more insecure [even though] I think you is a perilous place,” she replies, “but we don’t should be secure and confident in what you happen to live in a perilous part of it.” And it are, and who you are. I think New Zealand is this “benign strategic environment” which often appears to the rest of the world to be helps explain her country’s gesture towards more secure, confident and independent than Australia during the recent refugee stand-off. Australia.” Less than two weeks before the Ansett collapse, Helen Clark’s government came to KIWI WOMEN HAVE ALWAYS been a force to Australia’s assistance as it sought, in the face be reckoned with. The Scottish matriarchs of of international condemnation, to resolve the 19th century hewed wood and carried the issue of the 433 asylum seekers aboard water alongside their husbands. By 1893, the Norwegian freighter, Tampa. New Zealand their successors established New Zealand as agreed to take 150 boat people and assess their the first country in the world to give women claims for refugee status. the vote – 25 years before Britain, 27 before Ms Clark says now that, while she America, and 78 years before Switzerland. appreciates Australia’s security concerns In the lead-up to World War I, the and is not prepared to publicly judge Temperance Movement was in full cry, with the Howard government’s actions, the impasse women waging a vigorous campaign for highlighted a significant difference in attitude reduced alcohol consumption because of the between the two countries. damage caused to families. “The last poll I saw we were up to “It was a typical combination of 59 per cent of Kiwis saying they approved of politics and concern for society that the government’s action. You would not get drove that movement,” says Governor-General that result in Australia. If you look at the way Dame Sylvia Cartwright. it evolved ... after the people had scrambled Yet, it was not until the ‘70s – during the onto the Tampa from a sinking boat, the New so-called second wave of feminism – that Zealand media came to me and said, `What women began to enter the corridors of power. would the do if this “That’s when women started to become much was happening off our shore?’ more active in the Labour Party,” Helen Clark “And I gave the only response I believe I says now, “and [come] out of their traditional could give, which was that if that boat had role, because the traditional role of women been sinking off New Zealand territory, we in political parties [had been] doing the tea

56 THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S WEEKLY – NOVEMBER 2001