Youth policy Q&A: Helen Clark

Prime Minister Helen Clark talks to a panel of New Zealand Herald reporters. Picture / Greg Bowker

Politicians were asked to answer questions on their policies as part of the Herald's commitment in this election campaign to informed choice - our promise to explain the real issues. We have held forums on tax, transport, health and education.

Now it's time to hear about issues facing younger voters.  Here are the edited highlights of the 45-minute question-and-answer sessions with Prime Minister Helen Clark.

A lot of young people are quite concerned about their ability to be home owners. Do they have to accept a future of being tenants rather than home owners?

Definitely not. We've got quite a number of initiatives worked up now for home ownership. We've now put out into the market, if you like, three initiatives. The first started as a pilot mortgage insurance and is now being worked up to a full-scale scheme to support around 8000 prospective first-home owners a year.

Secondly, the plans for Kiwi Saver are out there and, of course, that's going to take time to kick in because the legislation as part of the scheme isn't set up.

The third is about the Government also working on an equity-sharing scheme. That is geared at the first-home owners in a market like Auckland, where the costs have just escalated and escalated. So the idea would be that the Crown, through Housing Corp, would take an equity share in the house to enable people to get in.
We're not accepting that home ownership should be put beyond reach. We're saying it has always been part of a Kiwi dream to get [your] own stake down, whether it's your apartment, your section or your house.

There is a sense among some young professionals that they're the unlucky generation. They don't have children, they work hard, they've paid for their own education, they weren't eligible for allowances and they've obviously got heavy interest on loans now. What's your attitude towards that group?

There is an unlucky generation [which] starts from those at about 1991/92 who started borrowing and they copped the full impact of the student loan system at its worst, which was the interest accruing from the time they borrowed. What can Labour offer those people who are perhaps feeling a bit left out?

Well, we're not retrospectively clawing back on that. It really depends where they are in the life cycle now. They may be at the stage where some of the home-ownership initiatives would be helpful to them.

They may be at the stage where the family tax relief would be very helpful. If they're in the family age group then they're going to be looking at the issues like quality of schooling, quality of healthcare. So they've probably moved on from the concern that younger age groups have right now into thinking more in terms of what's it going to be like for my family and for my security.

How many people do you want in New Zealand? What's the ideal population?

I am not one who advocates large population growth for New Zealand. I think part of New Zealand's comparative advantage is that there's a lot of space and relatively few people.

So what we aim for is mildly positive net migration, because a negative net migration, of course, has economic impact and a downside, and one doesn't want that. The current projections are that New Zealand's population will never reach five million. That enables us to keep the open spaces, the clean and green image, [which] attracts so much of the tourist dollar here and makes for a great lifestyle for us.

There are a lot of young migrants though. How would you balance enhancing their life and their experience here with also ensuring their presence enhances society?

The change to the skilled migrant category and abandoning the old points system is designed to see that the people who come here can fit into a job in the New Zealand labour market. Of course, we have highly educated and trained people who are poached by the rest of the world. So we have to be poaching back as fast as others poach ours, and overall we do, so positive net migration. I'm concerned to see migration work either way, both for migrants and for New Zealand.

Moving on to something completely different, which is New Zealand's anti-nuclear stance. Is it based on anything rational?

Definitely. Nuclear weapons are still a very significant danger to the world. So, counter-proliferation, as well as non-proliferation is now a big issue and New Zealand has got very involved in that too.

Is that legislation's main point or impact now, keeping nuclear out of New Zealand or making a statement to the rest of the world?

I think it was always about both. It was about New Zealand saying we don't want to be "defended" by nuclear weapons, because we think nuclear weapons are the problem.

So it was a statement from our own point of view, but also a statement that nuclear weapons pose the greatest threat to humankind and should never be used.

What will you do for women who want to start a family and not give up their job?

Tons. We've announced a lot of initiatives on early childhood and after-school care. We have the childcare subsidies and after-school care subsidies now reaching around 70 per cent of families with children.

We've announced the free 20 hours at any teacher-led licensed centre, for all 3 and 4-year-olds from 2007, which is a saving of around $90 a child on current prices. We've put a big emphasis on quality, so teacher-led, because we think that people want to know that their children are going to really benefit from the experience of being there.

In addition, when we legislated for the fourth week's holiday, we were mindful that New Zealanders are looking for a work/life balance and that the fourth week's holiday would be particularly useful for family people where you've got two parents, it might enable them to cover more of the school holidays, for example, between the two of them with the four weeks' holiday each.

Do you think with the extra 20 hours' free, that's going to put any pressure on the childcare centres?

There are a lot of childcare centres out there that have six-month waiting lists or one-year waiting lists.

That's why it was phased to come in in 2007 because if you just said, we'll do it now you couldn't have geared up for it. Also Trevor Mallard has had a period of time during which the licensed childcare centres have been ensuring that their staff are trained to getting the qualifications necessary, as well, for higher subsidy rates.

What is the most pressing issue for you relating to the environment?

I would say water. It seems a strange thing to say for New Zealand because we've taken being a water-rich country for granted, but we're under terrific pressure with water. Firstly, for hydro electric in the South Island, where we seem to be on a long-term trend with climate change to have the eastern side of the alpine chain going to be drier for the future. We have a lot of hydro-electric capacity concentrated on the eastern side.

In addition, there's a lot of competition for use of water.

What is your policy on cannabis law reform and would you entertain or support any type of decriminalisation?

We don't have a policy on it, and we would treat it as a conscience issue, as we [treat] anything to do with alcohol, sex, gambling, etc. We've had select committees look at the issue twice, but it hasn't resulted in law reform.

When we entered into the confidence-and-supply arrangement with United Future, the Government specifically undertook not to advance cannabis law reform.

Would you like to preside over a government where there is reform and where potentially it would be possible to smoke a joint out in Queen St?

My first answer to that is that drug use, including cannabis, and tobacco for that matter, is dopey. Pardon the pun. The second issue is, I like to be guided by the evidence on it.

Now a number of countries have gone down a partial prohibition or partial decriminalisation route, which in the past I've expressed interest in.

Even when I was Minister of Health I had advice that partial decriminalisation should be a path that New Zealand went down. I didn't act on it at that time. I'm happy to keep the issue before select committees, before expert panels.

But having been Minister of Health and having to grapple with the problems of tobacco and alcohol, one does hesitate before doing anything that might be seen to encourage the use of other drugs.

How will your party support the arts if you're part of the next Government?

Carry on the wonderful work we're doing. I'm proud of the things that are happening. What have we done? A lot of it has come down to money, frankly, because the arts thrive when they have patrons.

Some Maori say that they are still reeling from the effects of colonisation 150-odd years ago.

You know when I was a kid, Maori were fully employed like everybody else. So we really have to focus more on opportunity and life chances. In terms of life expectancy the big difference is probably smoking and nutrition issues and we have to work on those.

What's the ideal New Zealand family unit made up of?

The ideal? A loving household of people. I'm not going to prescribe the form, because there are so many different shapes of family.

Is there one key thing that you would do to make New Zealand a better place in which to live?

Lift living standards. It's as simple as that. It's the whole growth through innovation strategy. It's lifting the value of what we produce, export, sell, so we can justify higher wages, higher incomes, more investment back into this quality of services that every New Zealander needs, the infrastructure. It comes back to us needing to be a more positive society.

Okay you can say prosperity doesn't buy happiness, but poverty sure as hell doesn't buy happiness.

Young people need good role models. How are you?

Well I hope by doing a job to the best of my ability, showing great determination to get to the top, taking a number of steps over a long period of time, which led to fulfilling career goals. When I speak to school students they say, how did you get to be Prime Minister, or what advice would you give us if we set that goal? I say, you won't achieve it overnight.

Any success that's worthwhile is going to require time, effort, dedication and a passion for really wanting it. I also advise students that if your goal is nothing, you'll hit it every time, but you won't have a very satisfying life.

Who are your role models?

When I was on the way up and looking for inspiration I looked across at particularly the Labour woman Prime Minister of Norway who was very successful - Gro Harlem Brundtland. She was in New Zealand just in recent months. She is a very determined woman and she did a good job as Prime Minister and she led a country not dissimilar in size and political traditions to our own.

Closer to home, I was inspired in particular by two women who taught me. One was my history teacher in senior years at high school, Ann Trotter, who went on to hold very senior professorships and positions at Otago. Secondly, Associate Professor Ruth Butterworth at Auckland University, who taught me from my second year on. She was also a very committed member of the Labour Party.

What is your vision for the future of New Zealand in 50 years' time?

To be the country of choice to live in.

Will New Zealand be a republic if you have anything to do with it?

Well I'm on record as saying a republic is inevitable, but it has to be something as time comes and that isn't right now.