Motions — Rt Hon Helen Clark—Appointment as Head of United Nations  Development Programme 
Motions — Rt Hon Helen Clark—Appointment as Head of United Nations  Development Programme 
[Volume:653;Page:2271] 
Wednesday 1 April 2009 
Mr Speaker 
 took the Chair at 2 p.m. 
Prayers 
. 
Motions 
Rt Hon Helen Clark—Appointment as Head of United Nations  Development Programme 
Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister) 
: 
 I seek leave of the House to move a motion without notice to express endorsement of the appointment of the Rt Hon Helen Clark as head of the United Nations Development Programme. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Is there any objection to that course being followed? There is none. 
Hon JOHN KEY 
: I move  
That this House expresses its congratulations to New Zealand’s former Prime Minister the Rt Hon Helen Clark on securing the very important role of head of the United Nations Development Programme.  
Today at around 8.30 a.m. New Zealand time the United Nations General Assembly voted to endorse Helen Clark in this role following the nomination of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The vote represents the end of a long and challenging process as individuals from around the world have competed for this much sought-after position. It is a great achievement for Helen Clark personally and is one that all New Zealanders can be proud of. Her new role holds the rank of Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and is the third-highest ranking position in the UN. 
Helen Clark has reached these new heights after many years of service to New Zealanders at home and on the world stage. She is one of our country’s longest-serving members of Parliament. She has been a member of this House for 27 years and one who has always worked hard on behalf of the New Zealanders she came to serve. Her abilities and the respect that New Zealanders have for her is reflected in the variety of senior roles she has exercised during that time culminating in her service as New Zealand’s first elected female Prime Minister. She held that position for 9 years—a duration that ranks her amongst New Zealand’s longest-serving Prime Ministers. 
Throughout that time—and indeed prior to her election to Parliament—Helen Clark has shown qualities that prepare her well for her new job. She has always shown a passionate interest in international affairs and she has dealt with complex domestic politics and gained the trust and respect of New Zealanders. She has never been afraid to exercise her views on issues even when they placed her at odds with others. I am sure these qualities have prepared her well for what will be a complex and demanding role at the United Nations. 
The scope of the job is difficult to overstate. It will see Helen Clark running United Nations programmes in all developing countries with a budget of around US$5 billion. She will be working to help establish democracies reduce poverty improve healthcare help in crisis prevention and recovery and assist with environmental issues. She will be working to get buy-in for her initiatives and to ensure follow-through on the ground. She will do so in the context of what is a particularly challenging economic time for the world. Many developed countries will be financially stretched in the coming years yet the needs of poorer developing countries will be no fewer. It will fall to Helen Clark in her new role to ensure that the world’s wealthy nations—no matter the difficulty of the times—continue to provide support to those less fortunate. In other words the United Nations Development Programme needs someone who can front for it mobilise resources and give the organisation a human face. In appointing Helen Clark it has endorsed someone it believes is capable of that task. The challenges ahead of her are formidable yet I am confident she will rise to them. On behalf of this House and all New Zealanders I offer Helen Clark our ongoing support in her new role. The New Zealand Government offered our full and formal endorsement to her bid and we take great pleasure in her success. 
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many people who have played a role in supporting Helen Clark’s campaign for this international position particularly in our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In particular let me single out Rosemary Banks who in her role as New Zealand Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York has worked hard for this outcome. I personally wrote and spoke to the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to convey the Government’s support for Helen Clark’s bid and as Prime Minister I spoke to many international leaders to encourage their support. I am pleased to report that their support came willingly and from many corners and parts of the world. Leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum gave their support as did the Australian and United Kingdom Governments as well as many many other leaders. 
But let me be plain: in the end their support did not come because of the advocacy of the New Zealand Government; ultimately the reason Helen Clark won the leaders’ support for her bid and indeed this role was the personal abilities she brought to the table. Her successes demonstrate the respect that so many in the international community have for her. This support has been underscored by the universal welcome that UN member countries have shown for her appointment. Helen Clark should be very proud of her achievement and New Zealanders should be very proud of her. 
On a personal note let me say how pleased I am that Helen Clark will have this opportunity to further her achievements on the world stage. We come from different sides of the political spectrum; in the last election campaign and in the years leading up to it I competed vigorously against her for the right to govern this country—that is politics. We have brought different approaches priorities and outlooks to the issues that the country faces and we have each voiced those views strongly. That we have been able to do so is one of the great strengths of New Zealand society. Although we have had our disagreements Helen I say this to you: viewed from the world stage our differences are not so great. I am sure all New Zealanders no matter their political beliefs know that your achievements today warrant the putting aside of politics. Over the past days many have quipped that no matter how important he is many New Zealanders do not know the name of the current United Nations Development Programme administrator. However I am certain that by the end of Helen Clark’s term New Zealanders will know not only who she is but what she does and most important they will know what countries the United Nations Development Programme is assisting and why. If their engagement with Helen is anything like mine has been over the last couple of months they will have many text messages along the way. 
I for one Helen wish you the very best. We will work with you Helen as you take up this most demanding role. We will proudly stand alongside you in your new endeavour. Your appointment is not only a proud day for you personally but also a very very proud day for all New Zealanders and I personally want to offer you my congratulations. 
[ 
Applause 
] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Leader of the Opposition) 
: 
 It is a very rare occasion in this House when we get a unanimous standing ovation for a member who has served this country so well and who will go on to serve not only New Zealand but the whole of the international community in the job she is about to undertake. On behalf of the Labour Party I warmly support the motion moved by the Prime Minister. The nomination by Ban Ki-moon as Secretary-General of the United Nations and the confirmation by the General Assembly of the United Nations this morning of Helen Clark as leader of the United Nations Development Programme is a singular reflection of the very high regard in which Helen Clark is held internationally. Everyone in this House has already demonstrated this but I am sure overwhelmingly New Zealanders would wish to show their congratulations to Helen Clark as well and to wish her well as she meets the challenges of this new job. 
Helen Clark’s job is one of the most important jobs in the United Nations. It has a large budget of $5 billion. I am sure that she will be working very hard to make that budget even larger than it is because of the scale of the task that she has to fulfil: to meet the development needs of all of the countries in the developing world. The task is consistent with the values that Helen Clark has pursued throughout her long political career. Those values are ones of support for development social justice sustainability democracy and good governance. Helen Clark brings to the job skills and integrity. She brings to it her renowned commitment and determination her mastery of detail and her international knowledge and networks which make her an ideal choice for this position. As a small country of 4.3 million people we can be truly proud that a New Zealander has been chosen ahead of others from countries much more powerful and much larger than our own to head such an important international agency. 
I join the Prime Minister in thanking the people in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. They do a huge job. When given a task of this nature they do it with skill and they do it with diplomacy and they have delivered for us. I also thank the Government for continuing a bipartisan tradition that has seen both major parties and other parties in this House endorse New Zealanders for international positions—people such as the former Director-General of the World Trade Organization Mike Moore and the former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Don McKinnon. I think it is important that our country shows our unanimity in support of people who seek such high international positions. 
Finally I thank you Helen personally for the contributions that you have made through the Labour Party to New Zealand over a long political career spanning some 27 years. Helen we are proud of what you have achieved for New Zealand and we know that you will represent our country with distinction in the position that you will hold. Thank you Helen. 
JEANETTE FITZSIMONS (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 The Green Party is very pleased to be able to congratulate Helen Clark on her appointment to the position of Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. What a pleasure it is to see the House in accord about something. 
Helen Clark has served this country well in many ways. We are delighted that she now has the opportunity to serve a wider constituency: the hungry the homeless the very poor the sick and the illiterate in the world’s developing countries. In the 9 years that I have worked with Helen in party to party discussions although we have not always agreed I have observed her keen intelligence her vast knowledge of international affairs her commitment to her principles of social democracy and her considerable diplomatic skills. Her appointment is a great honour for Helen and it is a great honour for New Zealand. It is a signal that our country is well-regarded in international circles for making a constructive contribution well beyond our size. It is an indication that we are not too small to count and that we can make a difference. 
And a difference urgently needs to be made. The opportunities and the challenges that Helen will face in this new job are daunting. Since 1980 world GDP has increased nearly sixfold. In the same time the number of people living on less than $2 a day has declined only marginally. Current policies are not working. There is no way that people can be raised out of desperate poverty by business as usual. For everyone to aspire to the level of consumption of resources of the United States would take some seven planets and we have only one. And that one planet is so seriously degraded that it is limiting the development prospects of much of humanity. 
In the year 2000 the United Nations Development Programme adopted the United Nations Millennium Development Goals which included halving poverty by 2015. In 2005 its Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was published; it showed that degradation in ecosystem services was a major barrier to ever reaching those goals. This substantial report by dozens of authors and peer reviewers found that there will simply not be enough clean fresh water water purification by wetlands or fisheries—to name just a few examples—to permit the basics of a decent life to be met over coming generations unless we adopt a radically different tack. 
Since then we have watched the effects of the early stages of global warming melting the Himalayan glaciers on which a quarter of the world’s people depend for their drinking water. We have watched it worsen droughts in countries already struggling to produce enough food. We have watched it increase the risk of tropical diseases from which mainly the poor suffer and threaten to inundate the homes of millions in communities in the Pacific Islands Bangladesh and South China. Stopping and then reversing the degradation of ecosystems is a precondition to international development and must become a core part of the United Nations Development Programme. I am heartened by the fact that I know that Helen understands that. 
Since the beginning of economics world leaders have relied on generalised and indiscriminate economic growth to lift the poor out of poverty. The saying is that a rising tide lifts all boats but some boats are chained to the bottom by poor health a lack of education living in war zones discrimination and violence and they will not be lifted unless those impediments are tackled directly. Beyond even that world economic activity is already bumping up against the limits to resources whether they be oil gas fresh water land for food growing—as shown in recent grain price rises—fish stocks or climate. Relying on generalised economic growth in these circumstances will simply allow the better-off to capture even more of those limited resources leaving even less for those at the bottom. 
A story that has stuck in my mind for decades since I was a young woman is that when thousands of people in Ethiopia were dying of hunger in one of their recurring droughts—I think it was in the 1960s—their country was exporting canned beef grown on their land by multinational companies. That of course showed up as GDP growth but it was the very opposite of development. 
Most fish stocks in the world are now depleted and some have crashed. They have not in the main been crashed by poor people trying to feed themselves from coastal fisheries but by global companies with the technology to strip the coast bare. Only when local fisheries are returned to local control will coastal communities be able to feed themselves. 
This job will need massive resources. It is frightening to me that the total budget of the United Nations Development Programme is only NZ$9 billion compared with our GDP of about NZ$177 billion. The budget that Helen was in charge of to run the New Zealand Government was very much larger than the budget she will be in charge of in New York. Levels of international aid need to be significantly increased not least in New Zealand if the world is to meet this challenge. Until hard negotiations forced the last Budget to increase New Zealand’s development aid budget it had been less than 0.3 percent. We hope that will not be an obstacle as the new administrator goes begging to other Governments for more funds and we hope the New Zealand Government will increase our aid budget to show support for our top international representative. 
Helen the opportunity beckons to support all those who are working for a new model of development based on strengthening local food and renewable energy production returning land to those who live there community and women’s development resource-conserving technologies and protection of natural resources. That new model cannot succeed unless global efforts to tackle climate change also succeed. You have the capacity to drive that agenda further. You go with the very warmest best wishes of the Green Party. What we wish most for you is that in the endless round of cocktail parties travel and high-level meetings and negotiations to which you are no stranger the most desperate people—who rely on the United Nations Development Programme to eat to be housed and to be healthy and educated—are always top of your mind. 
Hon HEATHER ROY (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to rise on behalf of the ACT Party to support the motion on the appointment of the Rt Hon Helen Clark to be the head of the United Nations Development Programme. I think it is fair to say that Helen Clark and ACT have often not agreed politically over the years. Our political relationship is perhaps best put in Ms Clark’s own words about ACT: “A clear set of principles to guide decisions—not ones that Labour subscribes to but principles nonetheless.” However that has not stopped ACT MPs past and present from gaining a healthy respect for her ability and work ethic. Helen Clark is widely acknowledged as a leader of consensus politics. 
I think all New Zealanders were proud of and moved by what she claims as her greatest achievement—the return of the Unknown Warrior to New Zealand soil. There are many other achievements too numerous to count but those that stand out for me are the free-trade deal with China progressing a similar deal with the United States and gaining international recognition of New Zealand’s respect for the rule of law in terms of both peacekeeping and diplomacy. It is appropriate given these achievements on the world stage that she has now been given a lead role in international affairs. 
On becoming head of the United Nations Development Programme—the third-ranked position in the UN—Helen Clark joins an exclusive list of New Zealanders appointed to top international posts. In recent memory we have seen another former Labour Prime Minister Mike Moore lead the World Trade Organization and Don McKinnon serve two terms as Secretary-General of the Commonwealth. In the UN also New Zealanders have reached the highest levels. Currently Sir Kenneth Keith sits as a judge on the International Court of Justice the judicial organ of the United Nations. All have made their mark and we have no doubt that Helen Clark will do so in leading the UN Development Programme. 
There is much work to be done by this and similar organisations particularly in this time of global economic crisis. Wallets are closing and belts are tightening around the world. Considerable skill will be required to uphold the programme’s functions: poverty reduction improving democratic governance crisis prevention alleviating environmental degradation and very importantly stemming the tide of HIV/AIDS. About 4 billion people worldwide are living on less than $2 a day. Infection rates for AIDS in southern and eastern Africa are around 25 percent and are steadily rising in Asia and the Pacific. In too many countries women are forbidden from involving themselves in even the most basic activities in society let alone engaging in the democratic process. 
So it is with good wishes and pride in the success of a fellow Kiwi that we congratulate and farewell Miss Clark on her appointment as the head of the United Nations Development Programme. Helen Clark nga mihi nui me te aroha nui. Congratulations and best wishes. 
Hon TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 Tena tatou katoa. I am delighted to stand on behalf of the Maori Party today to offer our congratulations to the Rt Hon Helen Clark on the prestigious honour she has received for herself and for Aotearoa. Her appointment as the head of the United Nations Development Programme is a tribute to her outstanding abilities and leadership experience. Our tupuna used to say “Ina te mahi he rangatira!” meaning literally “See how he or she does; a leader indeed!”. For Helen Clark we can indeed say “Ina te mahi he rangatira!”. 
For all of her academic and professional life and no doubt in her primary school days at Te Pahu School Helen has been the consummate politician. She has researched political representation she has lectured in political studies she has held office at every level of the Labour Party she has achieved the ultimate aspiration of wearing the warrant of Prime Minister of our nation and now she is taking that political leadership to the world. We know she will serve well. 
Helen has the most formidable capacity for work. In fact I have always thought her passion for climbing mountains was absolutely true to form. Although for many of us the prospect of ascending Mount Kilimanjaro would be bordering on impossible I can well imagine Helen literally leaping up the ascent and still being ready for some more. Such is the nature of her leadership that she has always been able to inspire followers to believe that the impossible could be possible the improbable probable. She has commanded respect by her sheer energy for the role. 
I must acknowledge too her commitment to connect with people. I remember her once flying in from London immediately boarding a plane and heading up north for one of the “engaging with Maori” hui. Our people appreciated that Helen and I mihi to you for all the personal commitment that I know it took. I think one of the most endearing qualities that our people will remember of Helen’s leadership was her impressive memory. I can recall her greeting someone whom she had met only once at least 10 years before at a hospital in Kawakawa. That sort of personal touch is remarkable and I have no doubt that it will be extremely useful in the United Nations environment. Our people loved the ordinariness of the person some called Auntie Helen. They knew her to be an ordinary person who could enjoy a joke and laugh uproariously while at the same time demonstrate extraordinary talents as the leader of our country. It was not all perfect but there was more that we agreed on than disagreed on and I will always speak with the highest respect for a person who has made such a significant contribution to the future of Aotearoa. 
Many aspects of Helen’s leadership have earned her international recognition. In 1986 she was awarded the annual peace prize of the Danish Peace Foundation for her work in promoting international peace and disarmament. We acknowledge her as the first elected woman Prime Minister and the longest-serving woman MP. While Prime Minister she was a member of the Council of Women World Leaders whose mission is to mobilise the highest-level women globally for collective action on issues of importance to women in equitable development. I am sure that the council will be proud that one of its members is now heading the United Nations global development network with a potential to advance knowledge and experience across the world. 
We will remember the encouraging support that she provided to the arts community and her role as Minister of Health in sponsoring the introduction of tobacco control legislation. Those in the House who have enjoyed her friendship her leadership her mentorship her frequent text messages her animated telephone calls and her direct way of speaking will no doubt keep their memories alive in their own way. But for this moment I simply wish to place on the record our acknowledgment from the Maori Party of the dedicated role that she has played in shaping this nation. 
We wish her well too on what will be colossal challenges ahead—the urgency of eliminating poverty the desperate need to control the ferocious spread of HIV/AIDS and the significance of getting it right for supporting developing nations into a position of much greater strength which is a critical task for our global positioning. This is not goodbye; this is our time to be able to say ka kite ano. Na reira ka nui te mihi rawa atu ki a koe Helen. Tena koutou tena koutou tena tatou katoa. 
[ 
I will see you again. Therefore Helen I acknowledge you greatly. Greetings to you collectively and to all of us. 
] 
Hon PETER DUNNE (Leader—United Future) 
: 
 I want to warmly join with other colleagues who have spoken this afternoon and say on behalf of United Future how much we congratulate the Rt Hon Helen Clark on this most worthy appointment and endorse the sentiments that have been expressed. I have had the privilege of knowing Helen for just over 25 years and in that time we have worked together on a number of things and we have worked against each other on a number of things but there has been one constant throughout which I think is relevant to this appointment: Helen has always displayed a huge sense of integrity a deep sense of compassion I think a real commitment to the underdog and a determination not only to see what is right but to do what is right. I believe they are all qualities that will be critical in the role that she is about to undertake as the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme. 
Much has already been said this afternoon about the challenges that Helen will face in that role. I do not want to rehearse those; this is not the time to give lectures on one’s view of international relations. But it is the time to acknowledge that this a signal honour for a very important popular and famous New Zealander. I think it is relevant to observe that only a few weeks ago a newspaper poll installed Helen Clark as the most significant living New Zealander. I think that that is a possible explanation of why this appointment has been so widely greeted. 
Many people say many things about the United Nations and its organisations. They claim it to be inefficient unfocused and unable to deliver on objectives. If those allegations are true—and I suspect there is more than a moment of truth in them—then I also suspect very strongly that the United Nations Development Programme is about to undertake the first wave of change. I cannot conceive of the new administrator allowing the organisation to be unfocused—not to have a clear sense of purpose and a time line by which it will achieve its objectives and not to have clear directives issued to those working on its behalf of the expectations that are placed upon them. 
We like to think about New Zealanders occupying high places on the world stage and it is true that many examples can be drawn to mind. But it is also true that this appointment is the most significant appointment that a New Zealander has yet occupied on the international stage and I cannot think of a more appropriate person to take up that role than the Rt Hon Helen Clark. 
Helen you go with the blessings and the good wishes of this House the eager enthusiasm of this country to see you do well and the pride of our knowing that from this small nation such a prominent and successful person has emerged—one who will do good not just in the continuing interests of this country but on the world stage. My very best wishes to you. 
Motion agreed to. 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK (Labour—Mt Albert) 
: 
 I thank all the leaders who have spoken today for their very generous comments and also the House for the vote in support of the Prime Minister’s motion. 
It has been possible to mount a successful campaign for this position only because of very widespread support across political boundaries and that started at home. It has been the tradition that candidacies of this kind—and others have mentioned those of the Rt Hon Don McKinnon and the Rt Hon Mike Moore—are handed in a bipartisan way. I want to thank John Key for his early upfront and enthusiastic support. I know John that you picked up the phone and that you worked the international meetings you have been at and that has been very greatly appreciated. Provided that you do not change your cellphone number you will still be getting texts from me from time to time. 
The New Zealand Labour Party of course has given me its total goodwill on this. After many years of service I guess we are joined at the hip and that will always be the case. 
I want to particularly thank the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade for the incredible support it gave me with the Prime Minister’s full blessing. It emanated out from head office in Wellington to posts around the world but particularly in New York where our Permanent Representative to the United Nations Rosemary Banks led her team in an incredible astute and effective lobbying effort. 
Many other Governments were supportive. The Pacific family strongly endorsed the candidacy from the time that our Prime Minister raised it at the Pacific Island Forum leaders’ meeting in Port Moresby. Kevin Rudd was particularly supportive as was the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and other old friends like the United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Prime Minister of Norway Mr Stoltenberg were early out of the blocks but there were many many others too numerous to mention. 
All who have spoken today have referred to the huge task ahead. Here in New Zealand we feel the effects of recession we feel the effects of erratic climate and we feel the effects of high food prices high fuel prices and water issues. How much more then do those who live in the poorest countries on Earth feel these pressures? They feel them tremendously and particularly at this time of recession. Things are pretty desperate for many of the world’s people and those are the issues to deal with immediately. 
In the wider context I am very grateful for the many leadership opportunities that New Zealand has given me. They have enabled me to be a credible contender for this position. I could not have done that if I had not had the opportunities that this small country has made available. 
In the relatively near future I will give my valedictory speech to Parliament. I am told that the convention is that for former Prime Ministers there is no limit on time. Of course judgment will be exercised on that as it is by me on all things. Other comments can wait until that time. For now I thank everyone who has spoken for the kind words they have said and that will be something special for me to take with me to New York. Kia ora. 
[ 
Applause 
]