Power Play
ELEVEN AND A half years after being voted out of office, Helen Clark still packs a political punch. Seeing her weigh in recently over Radio New Zealand’s plans to scrap its Concert programme brought back memories of the steely persona she presented throughout three terms as Prime Minister from 1999.
Even without access to the levers of power, Clark is a plain-speaking force to be reckoned with. On the political platform du jour, she tore into RNZ’s proposal, in one emphatic tweet claiming it equated to “a dumbing down of cultural life in NZ”. In another, she put the acid on Labour ministers Grant Robertson and Kris Faafoi, reminding them Labour had pledged in 2017 not to cut the funding for or quality of services,
