A question of leadership: Helen Clark

Helen Clark

This time next week, Helen Clark or Don Brash could form a government. Political editor Jonathan Milne asks Prime Minister Helen Clark the tough questions.

Q: The personal impact of politics - you've been prime minister for six years, you're looking for another three. Not much of a life is it?

A: It's a great life. I really love the job.

Q: How's that been for your family and your marriage?

A: Because my husband's always kept out of the limelight, he doesn't become an object of people's adverse comments. He can live reasonably anonymously.

Q: Do you ever think ahead to days when you leave this job and have more time of your own?

A: Never. I'm very caught up in what I'm doing. I like what I'm doing.

Q: Owning a home is part of the Kiwi dream, but is Don Brash right when he says it may not make economic sense, especially for people in poorer rural areas where there's going to be very little capital appreciation?

A: I totally disagree. I think it's always been the Kiwi dream, and people want to find ways of realising that, ever since the first Labour Government's State Advances Corporation.

Q: Can you understand why people got cynical about the sudden stream of announcements - on transport, student loans and then Working for Families boost - all in an election campaign?

A: The reality is, the economy's been stronger for longer, and maybe the message to all the forecasters, including Treasury, is that they really shouldn't keep on predicting doom. Q: Do you think some extra funding announcements could feasibly have come as early as the Budget and then you might have avoided a lot of the criticism?

A: Well, neither the extended family tax relief nor the extra money for transport could have been done in the Budget because the sums of money envisaged just were not there.

Q: And student loans?

A: Oh yes, that was already envisaged out of the $1.9 billion contingency, and we were quite clear with journalists that we were holding back policy announcements.

Q: We've seen some highly visible industrial action over the last year.

A: Yes, you've seen some hard bargaining because after a number of years of growth, organised employees want their share and they're perfectly entitled to go for that.

Q: How concerned are you about the inflationary aspect?

A: You can't just write out big cheques for larger wages without the skill enhancements and productivity improvements, but then I think we're getting those in the economy.

Q: Would you miss Winston Peters? Do you have a soft spot for him?

A: I've really had very little to do with Winston ... We've never governed together. We've done one-off things like the foreshore and seabed.

Q: Is the country ready for the Greens around the Cabinet table? A lot of people still see them as flaky.

A: There will still be aspects of what they stand for that people will see as being out on the edge, but by and large they see in Jeanette Fitzsimons and Rod Donald people in their middle years who have thought-out positions. So I don't think the scary scenario works.

Q: If the Greens want to put cannabis reform back on the agenda, would you discuss it?

A: I don't think that issue can be dealt with other than by a conscience vote, and I say that about anything to do with drugs, gambling, sex, liquor ... In the past three years the arrangement with United Future was that the government would not advance the issue.

Q: Are there any portfolios not up for grabs in negotiations?

A: I don't think it's useful to go down that track. What I'm focused on is a single thing and that's a decent result and, after that, you can start thinking about those issues.

Q: Rod Donald as finance minister?

A: I'm not going to go down that track at all, except to say that I have huge confidence in the present incumbent.

Q: What's been your biggest mistake in the campaign so far?

A: I never talk about mistakes. I look forward. There's plenty of people like you and the Opposition paid to point out mistakes.

Q: Could a National-led government make it through a three-year term?

A: They have had a strategy for this election which is going for a majority single-party government - and New Zealanders got burnt by that and don't want it back.

Q: You got burnt by it last time.

A: It looked possible on polling last time that we could have had an absolute majority, and once that looks possible people run a mile, because they think, hang on, remember Muldoon, remember Rogernomics and Ruth Richardson. Don't go there. That's why I think their strategy's been flawed. They're like Caligula - they've devoured the right wing around them and they're left with the lonely and friendless.

Q: Any leader would like to lead a single party majority government, wouldn't they?

A: I think it's really something that no one realistic would entertain as an objective ... We have made the adjustment to working with others.

Q: You entertained it in 2002 - was that a learning experience for you?

A: Absolutely. I don't think it was a realistic objective.

Q: What about a precarious arrangement on the left?

A: I believe that we have the skills to manage a multi-party Parliament and multi-party support for the government. It does mean that you have to be very respectful of other parties' positions.

Q: Can you manage Winston?

A: I have great management skills, and I think what we've learnt over the six years is the importance of being humble in relations with other parties. I think that's essential.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY