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''This entry discusses the New Zealand Prime Minister. For others, see [[Helen Clark (disambiguation)]].'' |
:''This entry discusses the New Zealand Prime Minister. For others, see [[Helen Clark (disambiguation)]].'' |
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Revision as of 01:06, 31 August 2005
- This entry discusses the New Zealand Prime Minister. For others, see Helen Clark (disambiguation).
File:Hclark.jpg | |
Personal Details | |
Birth: | February 26 1950 in Hamilton, New Zealand |
Marriage: | 1981, to Peter Davis |
Children: | None |
Religion: | Agnostic |
Background: | University lecturer |
Political Details | |
Electorates: | Mt Albert, Owairaka |
Order: | 37th Prime Minister |
Political Party: | Labour |
Premiership | |
Predecessor: | Jenny Shipley |
Term of Office: | 27 November 1999 to the present |
The Right Honourable Helen Elizabeth Clark (born February 26, 1950) has served as Prime Minister of New Zealand since December 1999.
Early life
She received her education at Te Pahu primary school, Epsom Girls' Grammar School in Auckland and Auckland University, where she studied politics and graduated with a MA(Hons). She was the eldest of a four-girl farming family in the Waikato. Her mother worked as a primary-school teacher and her father, a farmer, supported the National Party at the time of the 1981 election. She studied abroad in 1976 on a University Grants Committee scholarship.
She became a lecturer in politics at Auckland University from 1973 until her election to Parliament in 1981. She married the sociologist Peter Davis, who had been her partner of five years at that time, shortly before her 1981 election.
Labour Party involvement
Helen 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 has been the president of the Labour Youth Council, an executive member of the Party's Auckland Regional Council, secretary of the Labour Women's Council and a member of the Policy Council.
She represented the Labour Party at the congresses of the Socialist International and 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
First elected to the New Zealand House of Representatives in 1981, representing the Mt. Albert electorate, in Auckland, she was one of four women who entered the parliament in that election. At the time she was only the second woman elected to an Auckland electorate and the seventeenth woman elected to the New Zealand parliament. During her first term (1981 - 1984) she became a member of the Statutes Revision Committee. In her second term (1984 - 1987) she chaired the Select Committees on Foreign Affairs and on Disarmament and Arms Control, both of which combined with Defence in 1985 to form a single committee.
Clark served in the Labour cabinets of David Lange, Geoffrey Palmer and Mike Moore, first as Minister of Housing and Conservation, then as Minister of Health and later as deputy Prime Minister. She became Leader of the Opposition during the National Party administrations of Jim Bolger and Jenny Shipley during the 1990s.
Helen Clark served as Minister of Conservation from August 1987 until January 1989. She was 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 was a member of the Cabinet Policy Committee, Cabinet Committee on Chief Executives, Cabinet Economic Development and Employment Committee, Cabinet Expenditure Review Committee, Cabinet State Agencies committee, Cabinet Honours Appointments and Travel Committee, and Cabinet Domestic and External Security Committee.
From October 1990 until December 1993 Helen Clark was Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Opposition spokesperson for Health and Labour, and a member of the Social Services Select Committee and the Labour Select Committee. Helen Clark became Leader of the Opposition on 1 December 1993.
Prime Minister
Helen Clark is Prime Minister, Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, and has responsibility for the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service and Ministerial services. Her areas of interest include social policy and international affairs.
During her time as Prime Minister she has been involved in a number of controversial situations including having signed her name for charity to a painting that she did not paint, the Corngate affair, and as the principal in a high-speed motorcade (which resulted in charges against the drivers participating). Political opponents like to characterise what they see as her micro-management style and as her social-engineering control as Helengrad.
As Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, she formed successive minority coalition governments with the Alliance party (1999), which collapsed in 2002 resulting in an early election, and with Jim Anderton's Progressive Party (2002, with parliamentary supply and confidence from United Future and 'good faith' with the Green Party).
Currently Helen Clark leads the Labour Party in its campaign for the national election scheduled for 17 September 2005.
See also
External links
- Prime Minister of New Zealand Website
- Please use a more specific IMDb template. See the documentation for available templates.