David Clark has resigned as Health Minister, saying he was becoming a “distraction” from the Government’s COVID-19 response.
Education and State Services Minister Chris Hipkins will replace him until the election.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she had a “frank” and “open” discussion with Clark late last week, and agreed with his assessment of the situation - that he was a distraction.
Clark came under fire last Wednesday when he threw the Director General of Health, Ashley Bloomfield, under the bus for mistakes at the border. A video of him refusing to take responsibility while standing alongside Bloomfield went viral online.
He said he wasn't pushed out of the role. Ardern wouldn't say what would've happened to him had he not resigned.
Clark said he took “full responsibility” for the decisions made and taken under his leadership.
He also wanted to put it on the record that it was an “honour” to work alongside Bloomfield.
Clark offered his resignation during lockdown when he broke his own rules by going mountain biking and driving to a beach outside of his neighbourhood.
Ardern didn’t accept his offer then, because the country was in the eye of the COVID-19 storm and continuity was needed.
Clark said the situation was more stable now, so it was an appropriate time to move on.
He will seek to be re-elected as the MP for Dunedin North, but will no longer be in Cabinet.
Ardern said she planned to reassess who was best placed to take the health portfolio after the election.
She said Hipkins had good operational experience with state services, even though he has no experience in health.
Hipkins said he "liked a good challenge".
Clark and Ardern addressed media in separate press conferences.
152 Comments
Wise move to get rid of the burden.
Phil Twyford should go as well.
And congratulate to Simon Bridge for becoming the foreign affair person for the National.
I can use 识时务者为俊杰 (Those who let themselves be guided by the current course of events are real heroes.) to describe Simon Bridge.
Can we even credit Bridges as a worthy adversary even? I wouldn't be worried about him if I was Muller. Bridges pulled his own pants down, in public, several times. Muller didn't have to do it. Just let Simon Bridges open his mouth or loose at a keyboard and its an insta-cringe. Bridges has no instincts, he can't read a room. He's a liability not a threat.
xingmowang,
I am curious. Is there anything the Chinese government does that bothers you? It certainly doesn't appear so as I have never seen you express any criticism of the CCP. Are you afraid to do so, or are you a true believer?
here's a small thought experiment for you. Imagine that the Chinese government decides that it would be in its strategic interest to occupy NZ. Unlikely? yes perhaps, but here's the question, what would you react?
Personally Xingmowang, I have no great issue with the Chinese people. I've always found them to be polite, respectful and in a lot of cases very inclusive. Let's face it.. the CCP has no desire, nor is there any strategic value in occupying NZ. The suggestion really is a moot point because I think the CCP has far bigger fish to fry. As to the question of "how would NZ react?", well it's a bit late. China is already our largest trade partner and has significant interest in our so called "strategic" industries. Bottom line is there would be a few protests and "knashing of teeth" but it woulbn't be a big deal. The horse has already bolted
Simon looks like he fits right in at the CCP! https://images.app.goo.gl/hWFuDVdscuWWnsuv8
My impression is that Labour has such a lack of talent, they really can't be cutting too many MPs loose or they'd have no-one left. You have to really screw up, like Clark, to get the boot - whereas Twyford and Lees-Galloway et al can be bloody useless and linger like a bad smell.
It seems to me that NZ, in general, has a lack of political talent, it's certainly not just a Labour problem. Some of the commentators and writers on this very website seem to be more passionate, engaged and informed than 85% of the politicians on offer. It's hard to know what goes on behind the scenes obviously but on the surface at least, most of them seem either disengaged, immature, out of their depth or incompetent.
I don't know much about the culture of recruitment into NZ politics or why there is such a current paucity of talent but I would love to hear some theories if anyone has any?
I was discussing this recently with a family member who was an MP for several terms.
Her response was two-fold: first, being an MP is a horrendous job that very few competent people want to do, especially once they've seen it close-up; secondly, that leadership (of every party) are scared of competent individuals coming through the ranks because they're seen as a threat. Thus you end up with the leader and just one or two competent lieutenants; the rest of the leadership/shadow leadership shouldn't be too successful or they'll start getting ideas above their station.
I wondered if it was also something of the "tall poppy" and anti-elite culture here in NZ. Perhaps politics is considered to be an elitist profession on some level? Successful politicians in NZ never seem to be very "statesmanly" and seem to go to some lengths to appear very down to earth. Kiwi's don't seem to treat their politicians with the respect of office that many nations do either. It's all very casual and informal. If we are realistic about human nature, it would be to acknowledge that we seek and confer status on those we perceive of as being talented. Being a politician is a tough job, long, long hours, high stress and yet, it doesn't carry the kind of status that might be attractive to talented people, who can achieve more status (and higher salaries) in other careers.
I agree -- as a nation we're *very* paranoid about anyone who seems too 'clever'. JK was the absolute master of speaking like a semi-literate yokel while no doubt being very smart underneath. Articulating your ideas too clearly is dangerous in politics, because it means people might disagree with you -- safer to train yourself in the art of saying nothing. The problem is that there *just might* be a connection between being articulate and useful intelligence. I think our media are somewhat culpable in this, as they assume the public want an idiot, and the media-fearing political classes in their wake. I'm not so sure -- this horror of articulate, even intellectual leadership didn't stop Lange from being elected in the 80s. Not that he was an unmitigated success, but at least he could explain what he was doing and why.
I actually thought until a handful of years ago we were quite well served by our politicians, especially after living in Aus for a few years. They aren't that flash in your homeland are they Ginger? My wife who is Japanese says they are all idiots there in Japan...
So I think you are off the mark a bit here :)
Oh I wasn't comparing talent in NZ politics to the UK!!!! The UK is a whole mess of messes that I wouldn't waste anyone's time writing about. But I understand the UK mess and don't understand the NZ mess. Hence the question. There is a difference between how Kiwis interact with the politicians compared to some other countries, its significantly more relaxed and chummy. People throw dildos. PM's wear wellies, shorts and a tie. I'm not judging that to be a good or bad thing, but asking whether it contributes to NZ politics failing to attract talent. It may be totally unrelated, i was just asking. National failed to achieve several of their policies during their last spin on the merry-go-round, not least of all solving the housing crisis, despite having a whole decade to achieve it. So I don't judge that as an example of political talent either. IMO talent is what talent achieves, which is a healthy, happy, productive and fair society. Just being in the right place at the right time and munching on low hanging fruit (the alleged rock star economy fuelled by immigration and debt) is not what I consider to be evidence of talent.
MMP might be one factor limiting flagship policy delivery.
I think another factor is a lack of depth of analysis of flagship policies. It seems to me that the parties put insufficient effort in to that, then when the detailed analysis is done things don't stack up...
Those of us who may have once thought about flinging their hats into the ring, have had quite long enough watching from the sidelines, to discern that it would be a huge personal mistake. Pity about the country and all. And as with Councils, it's the unelected and virtually unfire-able Staff who actually run the joint in any case. Politicians and Councillors are a set of fame-hungry buffoons around a very distant table, to staff. I've been on both sides of That fence, decades ago, and it has degenerated since into a Self-Serving Swamp on the staff side, and a set of Vainglorious Show-ponies on t'other.
Having spent time in the Wellington environment, working among a number of government agencies, if you're competent you get punished for that as you're a threat to those above you - so they literally crush, silence, bully and abuse you until you no longer want to be apart of it (happened to a number of colleagues and self). So they leave and want to have no further involvement in political/bureaucratic environments. It breeds incompetence and corruption. I was actually quite surprised how corrupt NZ is/was after the time spent in Wellington - it changed my entire view on NZ and western society. My views were that we were for the good and lived in well run and free/competent society, but left thinking somewhat the opposite.
And NZ is mild by US standards. The confirmation hearing for Justice Kavanaugh in US showed that anyone aspiring to high office has to be truly nuts - because partisans will attempt to destroy you, and men in particular are easy targets no matter how perfectly they have lived their life, with the money and power in play someone can always be found to accuse them of sexual impropriety. At this point what sane man would ever want to be part of that process?
It's not enough to be smart, or well informed, you have to have the gift of the gab and present well, and it is bloody hard to juggle with kids - an electorate MP (most of National and a few of Labour) generally only sees their kids for a day or two a week, and even then will be pulled away on other things often. Few partners are willing to sacrifice their lives like that.
Wow! One of the best comments I have read of late on Interest.
The old saying that...'nations deserve the politicians they elect' is well validated by the general cynical tenor of comments about our parliamentarians we get on this blog. In our system of representative democracy, how many kiwis take the time and effort to join a compatible political party, help fund the local branch, go to boring agm's, serve on local subcommittees, and take an active interest in selecting a candidate to stand at election time?
We ordinary kiwis were the folk who got agitated by the excesses of Muldoon and voted for MMP, a system bizarrely guaranteed to muzzle our local MP and reinforce the power of a highly centralised Party machine. It also reduces the influence of local electorates by making electorate size excessive in both population and geographic size, in favour of unelected list members whoes direct loyalty is to the Party hierarchy. Idealy we want representatives who represent us to Wellington, but have ended up with those who represent Wellington to the local electorate.
It is surely 'us' who need to get our act together if we want representative democracy to work.
A good read on the actual personalities of Parliament, and how it actually works, and how we the public can get it so wrong is, "Mr Ambassador: Memoirs of Sir Carl Berendsen" edited by Hugh Templeton.
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Does Labour #2 Kelvin Davis do anything, or is he only minister for racist tokenism? Clark's replacement Hipkins is already juggling 4 other major roles: Minister for Education, State Services, Leader of the House and Ministerial Services, how can he devote the necessary time to MOH as well? How appalling is it that they have no one else they can call on out of all the the other 44 Labour MP's for this critical role during the greatest health crisis in 100 years.
The only thing I've seen him do is throw taxpayer money at publicly listed tourism operators, can't have the shareholders stumping up with the cash! Surprised THL doesn't have a share price of infinity, because clearly there is zero risk - NZ taxpayer will always bail you out.
And that is why Clark will bounce back. Whatever his media handling failings (and much of it was beatups or foist upon him by a leader hungry for limelight) he has shown more competence in handling the toughest of all govt portfolios over the last 2.5 years than anyone other than possibly Robertson or Hipkins would have. Health throws up crises on an almost monthly basis and never produces any 'good news', you are managing a highly educated and perpetually annoyed workforce with never enough money to meet demands and endless sob stories being chucked your way by media.
I suspect he was told "Resign on your own, which makes Labour look OK and you can still run for MP. Don't resign and I kick you out, then you can't run for MP under Labour and will be booted from the party". I think it was quite clear from her body language that once the initial emergency was over JA was going to get rid of him.
I actually agree with the PM's reasoning here. Yes he was a naughty boy that eventually paid for his mistakes, but at the time, there was probably nobody in a better position to run the response to a health crisis than the existing health minister. One wonders if he was distracted by his upcoming job loss and therefore was a source of some of the issues we had in the response...
By the way, the story has been updated since I wrote this original comment. Which appears to have been spot-on.
"at the time, there was probably nobody in a better position to run the response to a health crisis than the existing health minister". MAATE! which rock have you been living under? Clark was a fool. His only redemption is he should never have been offered the job but was so naive he took it!
In terms of geographic isolation and small population NZ is rivaled only by Iceland. If we hadn't dealt to Covid we would forever be the laughing- stock of the whole world. Dealing to Covid was always Labour's game to lose. Any half-competent government could have dealt with Covid given our 'natural' advantages. However, Labour deserves credit in that they were hamstrung by the corrupt NZF loonies.....Winston Peters would have had us partying with the Australians by now.
Funny this. Only a couple of days back I sent him an email giving some suggestion about introducing pre-boarding testing and negative result certificate for Kiwis wanting to return to New Zealand. Got a quick response from his office stating that they won't be looking at it now, as it is not conclusive.
Wonder whether I had anything to do with his resignation...
Goodbye, good riddance. The level of incompetence in the Govt cabinet ranks is mind boggling. But that's what happens when there isn't much to choose from. The elephant in the room however, IMO, is that neither major party has much depth. NZ gets another 3 years of ineptitude regardless of who is in. Pity we couldn't have a "Roman senate" style of govt. No "Party" affiliations, just independants all debating and lawmaking on each issues merits. Wouldn't get much done but it might be better quality
Yes and then they could stab the troublesome ones (Julius Caesar) and/or murder without trial (Catiline) and/or banish your previously most revered politicians, burn their house down and build a statue to shame them in its place (Cicero).
It would make for some great twitter flame wars I guess?
But I agree on the lack of politcial talent across the board.
With election pending, Clark took one for the team.
His slip ups were relative minor, and in his bubble, however politics has nothing to do with fairness or the quality of the member, but perception with opposition going after the weakest link.
The result is parliament is full of washed up lawyers or journalists, who speak well but are hopelessly inept in delivering anything. Parliament shouldn't be a career, and would suggest the way to bring back democracy is to limit the tenure of MP's to not more than 9 years.
There should be a citizens initiated referendum on MP tenure, because theres no chance in hell a referendum of this nature will come from the MP's on that.
Yep, feels like a big part of it, the video, we all saw the faces. I think the PM tried to explain it all away in Queenstown last week (talking of how they were of the same thinking), it didn't wash.
& now the PM dept have had to move to plan B.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300009641/inside-the-spinroom-w…
The resignation less sure.
He was so close to the claim of being Minister of Health, during a pandemic, where at world's bottom few fatalities (economy not his problem).
That claim, could have been a key, a key to unlock UN/WHO, NGO nirvana, so close.......
and then the video, simile to camera, damn video.
I agree that MPs are a self serving bunch but experience is important. Remember that the electorate gets the type of Govt it votes for. Nz's electorate is either too ill informed, too short sighted, too gullible or far too impatient to ever have a truly effective Parliament.
H L Mencken springs to mind, Hook:
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
Mr Mencken was right about one thing at least... it's a theory. If the NZ electorate had an iota of sense or foresight we wouldn't have this godforsaken dysfunction called MMP. NZ was sold a complete and utter lemon and it swallowed the bait. Increased democracy?? Gimme a break!!
ABSOLUTELY!! If the electorate is too apathetic to vote they get what they didn't vote against. I don't see 5-7% of the votes counted choosing the govt as particularly "democratic" The last result speaks for itself. In an ideal world, we banish "List MPs" and reduce the Parliament to "Electorate only" numbers (maybe 71 Electorates). The single party with the most electorates gets to govern.... simple. No "loveydovey tactical deals", no Coalitions. This "Proportional Representation" based on voter turnout is a crock and nothing but a job creation scheme for frankly substandard and incompetent politicians
Agree totally Hook! MMP and list MP's are a scourge on our society! Unfortunately, in general the NZ population just doesn't give a s--t about elections. One only had to do very minor research on the German MMP system to see that we should not go near it. As usual our stupid media got sucked into selling the big con on how good MMP would be for NZ and what a disaster it has been!
Mostly agree, though I'd say that MP's should be out of parliament if they spend more than 6 years as a government backbencher. We want to retain those who have skills needed to be successful ministers, and we need turnover to develop talent (Labour's biggest problem this term).
Clark got shafted due to Ardern wanting to front lockdown pressers and Bloomfield being (due to legislation) in control of quarantines/lockdown. His slip-ups were inconsequential media beat-ups, though he didn't manage media with sufficient paranoia.
Yes. A PhD in theology doesn't really qualify you for much except to perhaps retrain as a church leader or career politician. In the health ministry, I would expect most of the medical aspects are handled by the public servants that are bundled into policy for the minister to stamp.
No fall guy now for Cinders to blame when the inevitable next MOH C19 stuff up occurs, Hipkins will be too new. Her advisers must have reckoned that the public mocking of incompetent Clarks was more damaging to Labours election prospects than the risk of being forced to spend some of her political capital in having to front a failure. Mind you, as Jacinda is telling us this morning, the world out there is a very dangerous place so mummy stepping up to protect us personally reassures me that all is well in her protecting embrace.
Ha, yes. Unconscious referencing. But I mean, who knew the world was such a dangerous place. We are just so jolly lucky to have mommy dearest who understands just how really really bad the world is and cares so much for us that she tirelessly repeats it and helps us understand the reduction of our national psyche to enfeebled submission to infantile injunctions is not a power junkie control mechanism, it is for our own protection.
The events leading up to WW1 were varied and complex. However I'm assuming you're referring to some of the catastrophic FUBARs during the Allied response. In that you are 100% correct. However we luckily have the luxury of the Parliamentary process so the worst excesses are tempered somewhat. (hopefully)
Its time to call a spade a spade .
This herd of cats masquerading as a Government has been absolutely shambolic since day 1 .
To call it a circus is an insult to all the clowns of the world , at least in a circus the clowns are entertaining.
NOTHING , absolutely nothing has been achieved by them , as they bumble from one crisis to the next .
Not only have they made a horses breakfast of our economy , they have not achieved one of their Election promises .............NOT A SINGLE ONE
Frankly they are a disgrace and an embarrassment to us as a country
We have to get rid of them
It's different because Labour savaged National for 'looking after their rich mates' and inaction on tax reform in opposition and kept pointing to their twice-rejected Capital Gains Tax as some sort of miracle cure, only to get in, reverse National's tax changes and then change almost nothing. So, prey tell, which 'rich mates' are Labour looking after?
Yep lets hope the majority of voters and now getting nervous at the inability of this government delivering anything, as it's going to be their jobs and livelihoods on the line. This election, unlike any other, will determine a huge number of peoples lives within the next 6 months. We just wrote up another 40 letters yesterday so I am starting to get rather vocal about the inaction of this government, when so many good people are being let go with a damn bleak future out there.
It must be quite depressing to have to tell people they have lost their jobs, certainly not something I would do lightly. Fact is FCM, neither of the parties we have to choose from are capable of changing anything realistically, and certainly not in 6 months. Building roads will only boost offshore companies presence here (we don't have the capability in NZ anymore) Building cycle tracks is just straight BS. NZ is totally up S...creek and will remain so for at least the next 18 months - 2yrs. Unfortunately no-one can change the fact we were too reliant on Tourism and offshore Education. I completely agree with you that this Govt hasn't got a clue. If nothing else, this Covid shock hopefully might get NZ Inc looking at more manufacturing, owned and staffed by NZ interests. Unfortunately NZs track record in that isn't stellar and I can't see much changing.
I agree Hook however virtually everyone overlooks the fact that we still have a high functioning group of primary industries that are just getting on with business! Instead of wasting money on tourism ( a dead industry for many years to come) the government should be helping these industries to become even more productive. Instead they keep on throwing up roadblocks.
I agree IO. the rot started decades ago. The buyout of some of our most profitable companies, the offshoring of our manufacturing base and the general vilification of personal financial success (unless you're a sporting success) The best thing that will come out of this upheaval is that NZr's will be forced to take a good long hard look at what drives our lifestyles here and what will maintain and enhance it. It speaks volumes about a country's general grasp of the world when sportsmen/women are promoted for Knighthoods and scientists, researchers and innovators are discounted, discredited or dismissed. "Tall poppy syndrome"?? Bah! it's jealousy.. pure and simple
The problem is the lack of a viable alternative, especially for younger Kiwis.
The present government has not delivered on some of their election promises and campaigning, as the government before them also failed to. However, today's opposition only has worse to offer younger generations of Kiwis.
What did National do for the economy other than continuing the wealth effect via housing speculation and mass immigration?
Labour did ban foreign buyers (with few exemptions) speculating in residential property which they said they would do prior to the election even though National said it could not be done
This pandemic should have been Clark’s time to shine and a defining moment in his career but instead while Blomfield stepped up for the people Clark hid away in Dunedin, went mountain biking and then threw Blomfield under the bus.
The only right thing he’s done is resign, albeit about 6 weeks too late.
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