David Clark | |
---|---|
14th Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs | |
In office 6 November 2020 –1 February 2023 | |
Prime Minister | Jacinda Ardern Chris Hipkins |
Preceded by | Kris Faafoi |
Succeeded by | Duncan Webb |
20th Minister Responsible for the Earthquake Commission | |
In office 6 November 2020 –1 February 2023 | |
Prime Minister | Jacinda Ardern Chris Hipkins |
Preceded by | Grant Robertson |
Succeeded by | Deborah Russell |
16th Minister for State Owned Enterprises | |
In office 6 November 2020 –1 February 2023 | |
Prime Minister | Jacinda Ardern Chris Hipkins |
Preceded by | Winston Peters |
Succeeded by | Duncan Webb |
31st Minister of Statistics | |
In office 6 November 2020 –1 February 2023 | |
Prime Minister | Jacinda Ardern Chris Hipkins |
Preceded by | James Shaw |
Succeeded by | Deborah Russell |
1st Minister for the Digital Economy and Communications | |
In office 6 November 2020 –1 February 2023 | |
Prime Minister | Jacinda Ardern Chris Hipkins |
Succeeded by | Ginny Andersen |
40th Minister of Health | |
In office 26 October 2017 –2 July 2020 | |
Prime Minister | Jacinda Ardern |
Preceded by | Jonathan Coleman |
Succeeded by | Chris Hipkins |
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Dunedin Dunedin North (2011–2020) | |
In office 26 November 2011 –14 October 2023 | |
Preceded by | Pete Hodgson |
Succeeded by | Rachel Brooking |
Personal details | |
Born | 5 January 1973 |
Political party | Labour |
Spouse | Katrina |
Children | 3 |
Alma mater | |
Occupation | |
Website | www |
David Scott Clark (born 5 January 1973) is a former New Zealand Labour Party politician.
He was the Member of Parliament representing Dunedin (previously Dunedin North) from 2011 to 2023 and was twice a Cabinet minister in the Sixth Labour Government led by Jacinda Ardern. Clark was Minister of Health from 2017 until July 2020,when he resigned after multiple controversies related to the response to COVID-19. [3] [4] He was returned to Cabinet in November 2020,holding various economic portfolios,and retired from politics at the 2023 general election.
Clark grew up in Beachlands,just south of Auckland,and was schooled in Auckland. [2] He studied at Saint Kentigern College and spent his last year on a school exchange in Germany,immersing himself in the German language. [1]
In 1991,Clark moved to Dunedin to study at the University of Otago. He initially studied medicine but abandoned that in favour of pursuing degrees in theology and philosophy. Clark also studied theology and philosophy at Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen. [1] [2]
Ordained in 1997,Clark is a Presbyterian minister. [3] He worked as the Assistant Minister at St Lukes Presbyterian Church in Auckland. [2] He was the celebrant at the civil union of MP Grant Robertson. [3] Clark later returned to the University of Otago and completed a PhD on the work of German/New Zealand refugee and existentialist thinker Helmut Rex. [5] He has also worked as a Treasury analyst and the warden of Selwyn College at the University of Otago. [3] [1] Before his election to Parliament,Clark served as deputy chair of the Otago Community Trust. [3]
Years | Term | Electorate | List | Party | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2011 –2014 | 50th | Dunedin North | 49 | Labour | |
2014 –2017 | 51st | Dunedin North | 26 | Labour | |
2017 –2020 | 52nd | Dunedin North | 9 | Labour | |
2020 –2023 | 53rd | Dunedin | 16 | Labour |
After serving as chairman on the Labour Party Dunedin North electorate committee,Clark was selected by the Labour Party to replace the retiring Pete Hodgson in the electorate. [2] He won the seat at the 2011 election over National candidate Michael Woodhouse. [6] Clark would defeat Woodhouse again in each of the following three elections,increasing his majority every time. [7] [8] [9]
Clark's maiden parliamentary speech focused on his concern about rising inequality and his passion for social justice. In it,he argued that a more equal society will produce better outcomes,both socially and economically. [10] [11]
Under Labour leaders David Shearer,David Cunliffe and Andrew Little,Clark served as the party's spokesperson in a range of economic portfolios,including revenue,economic development and small business. [12] In Opposition he served as Labour's spokesperson for various areas,including Revenue,Economic Development,Small Business,Tertiary Education,and Health. During his time as Revenue spokesperson,he drew attention to difficulties the dated Inland Revenue computer system was creating for the organisation,and the small amounts that multinational companies were contributing to the tax base. [13] [14] [15] [16]
Clark completed an Eisenhower Fellowship in 2013, [17] focusing much of his trip on the priority accorded to the values of fairness and freedom in New Zealand and the United States. [18] The same year,Parliament passed a private member's bill in Clark's name. The bill proposed "Mondayisation" of Waitangi Day and Anzac Day so that additional public holidays would be held if the true dates for those holidays occurred on a weekend. [19] This was the first Bill to pass against the Government in four years. [20]
After the retirement of long-serving Labour MP Annette King was announced in March 2017,Clark became the Labour Party's health spokesperson. [21]
After the 2017 general election,the Labour Party formed a government with New Zealand First and the Greens. [22] Clark was appointed to the Cabinet as Minister of Health and Associate Minister of Finance.
In late April 2018,Clark appointed three new chairs to head Auckland's three district health boards:Patrick Snedden for the Auckland District Health Board,Judy McGregor for the WaitematāDistrict Health Board,and Vui Mark Gosche for the Counties Manukau District Health Board. These appointments replace Lester Levy,who had headed all three boards and resigned in December 2017. [23] On 30 April 2018,Clark conceded that the Government would be unable to deliver on its election promise of reducing general practitioner fees but indicated that it would be introduced in phases over time. [24] [25]
On 4 May 2018,Clark announced that the Dunedin Hospital would be replaced by a new hospital on the site of the former Cadbury factory site and a neighbouring block that included the building occupied by Work and Income. The construction project is estimated to cost NZ$1.4 billion,would involve around a thousand workers,and is expected to be completed by 2026. [26] [27]
In mid-June 2018,Clark was criticised by employees of the Counties Manukau District Health Board for allegedly trying to silence their reports of run-down buildings,asbestos,and overflowing sewage at Middlemore Hospital. Clark denied those allegations but criticised the staff for communicating through the media rather than through official channels. [28] [29] Clark subsequently apologized to Counties Manukau DHB chairman Rabin Rabindran for the handling of the Middlemore saga. [30] That same month,Clark defended the Government's $500 million pay offer to nurses after the national union,the New Zealand Nurses Organisation,voted to go on strike. [31]
In mid-July 2018,Clark was forced to publicly defend his decision to go on a family holiday prior to a planned national strike by the Nurses Organisation. [32] On 25 July,Clark—alongside union representatives from the E tū and the Public Service Association as well as the Ministry of Social Development and the Accident Compensation Corporation—signed a NZ$173.5 million pay equity agreement to pay 5,000 mental health and addiction workers more. [33] [34] Later that month,he announced that the District Health Boards,Nurses Organisation,and the Ministry of Health had successfully negotiated a joint accord to ensure safe staffing levels for nurses. [35] [36]
In early September 2018,Clark suspended the troubled Oracle IT project to overhaul the District Health Boards' ageing IT systems. The troubled project had cost NZ$100 million. [37] In mid-November,Clark announced that the Government had scrapped plans for a proposed third medical school in the Waikato region on the grounds that the project would have cost billions to set up and operate. [38] [39] On 19 November,he also announced that the Government would establish a NZ$20 million new health centre in the South Island town of Westport. [40]
As Minister of Health,Clark took a leadership role in the Government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand. In early April 2020,Clark drew media attention and public criticism when he drove to a Dunedin park two kilometres away from his home to ride a mountain bike trail despite the Government's COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Clark later apologised to prime minister Jacinda Ardern for ignoring official guidelines advising against non-essential travel. [41] [42] [43] [44] During the first week of the country's national lock-down he also drove his family twenty kilometres to a beach for a walk. Ardern subsequently announced that Clark offered his resignation,but due to his role in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic,she did not accept it,instead depriving him of his ministerial role as Associate Finance Minister and demoting him to the bottom of Labour's Cabinet ranking. [45]
In late June 2020,Clark attracted media attention and criticism following a press conference at which he stated,"The director-general [ Ashley Bloomfield ] has accepted that protocols weren't being followed,he has accepted responsibility for that and has set about putting it right". [46] His remark was interpreted by some journalists as blaming Bloomfield for the Ministry of Health's mismanagement of quarantine following a recent outbreak stemming from overseas travel. [46] [47] The Spinoff 's editor Toby Manhire opined that Clark's "humility bypass" created problems for Ardern's government. [48] Left-wing commentator Chris Trotter described Clark's handling of the situation as "shameful" and called on Ardern to dismiss him from his position. Right-wing commentator Trish Anderson criticised Clark for not "'pulling his weight' in the government" and criticised Ardern's perceived inaction against him as a "failure of leadership." [49] Clark's Wikipedia article was also vandalised with remarks attacking his handling of the press conference with Bloomfield. [50] [51]
In early July 2020,Clark announced that he was resigning as Minister of Health,stating that "I've always taken a view that the team must come first ... so I've made the call that it's best for me to step aside." Ardern accepted his resignation,stating that she "accepted Clark's conclusion that his presence in the role was creating an unhelpful distraction from the Government's ongoing response to Covid-19 and wider health reforms." [4] [52]
During the 2020 New Zealand general election held on 17 October,Clark contested the Dunedin electorate and was re-elected,defeating National candidate Michael Woodhouse by a margin of 15,521 votes. [53]
On 2 November 2020,Prime Minister Ardern announced that Clark would be returning to Cabinet but would not be holding his former Health portfolio. Instead,he would pick up the Commerce and Consumer Affairs,Statistics,Digital Economy and Communications and State Owned Enterprises portfolios,as well as becoming Minister Responsible for the Earthquake Commission. [54] During the 2020–2023 term,Clark sponsored the Grocery Industry Competition Bill,which seeks to address excessive supermarket profits and encourage more competition within that sector. He also took an interest in the Commerce Commission's research into the supermarket,construction supplies,and banking sectors. [55] [56]
On 13 December 2022,Clark announced his intention to retire from politics at the 2023 general election. [55] [56] On 31 January 2023,prime minister Chris Hipkins announced a Cabinet re-shuffle of ministerial portfolios,and Clark's portfolios were transferred to other ministers. [57] He was briefly deputy chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee from April until September 2023. [58]
Clark was appointed registrar of the University of Otago in 2023. [59]
Clark is married to Katrina,and they have three children. His brother,Ben,stood for Labour in the North Shore at the 2011 election,placing second behind Maggie Barry. During his university years,Clark was a competitive cyclist and has twice completed the Ironman Triathlon. [60] [61]
The New Zealand Labour Party,also known as Labour,is a centre-left political party in New Zealand. The party's platform programme describes its founding principle as democratic socialism,while observers describe Labour as social-democratic and pragmatic in practice. The party participates in the international Progressive Alliance. It is one of two major political parties in New Zealand,alongside its traditional rival,the National Party.
Sir Michael John Cullen was a New Zealand politician. He served as the 16th deputy prime minister of New Zealand,also as the minister of Finance,minister of Tertiary Education,and attorney-general. He was the deputy leader of the Labour Party from 1996 until November 2008,when he resigned following a defeat in the general election. He resigned from Parliament in April 2009,to become the deputy chairman of New Zealand Post from 1 November 2009 and chairman from 1 November 2010 until leaving the role in 2016. On 6 March 2020 he announced that he had resigned from the Lakes and Bay of Plenty district health boards,respectively. At the same time he also announced that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 small-cell lung cancer,which had also spread to his liver.
David Henry Benson-Pope is a New Zealand politician. He is a former Member of Parliament for Dunedin South and has been a member of the Dunedin City Council since 2013.
David William Parker is a New Zealand Labour Party politician who currently serves as Attorney-General,Minister for the Environment,Minister of Transport and Associate Minister of Finance in the Sixth Labour Government. He previously served as a Cabinet Minister in the Fifth Labour Government,Deputy Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party and Deputy Leader of the Opposition from September 2013 to September 2014,and as interim Leader of the Labour Party from September to November 2014. He represented the Otago electorate at the 47th Parliament and has since served as a list MP.
District health boards (DHBs) in New Zealand were organisations established by the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000 under the Fifth Labour Government,responsible for ensuring the provision of health and disability services to populations within a defined geographical area. They existed from 1 January 2001,when the Act came into force,to 30 June 2022. Initially there were 21 DHBs,and this was reduced to 20 organisations in 2010:fifteen in the North Island and five in the South Island. DHBs received public funding from the Ministry of Health on behalf of the Crown,based on a formula that took into account the total number,gender,age,socio-economic status and ethnic mix of their population. DHBs were governed by boards,which were partially elected and partially appointed by the minister of Health.
Dunedin Hospital is the main public hospital in Dunedin,New Zealand. It serves as the major base hospital for the Otago and Southland regions with a potential catchment radius of roughly 300 kilometres,and a population of around 300,000.
Andrew James Little is a New Zealand lawyer,former politician and former trade union official. He was Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2014 to 2017 and a senior minister in the Labour governments led by Jacinda Ardern and Chris Hipkins from 2017 to 2023,including as Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations,Minister of Justice,Minister of Health and Minister of Defence.
Grant Murray Robertson is a New Zealand politician and member of the Labour Party who has served as the minister of finance since 2017 and as minister of foreign affairs since 2023,and served as the 19th deputy prime minister of New Zealand from 2020 to 2023. He has been the member of Parliament (MP) for Wellington Central since 2008.
Clare Elizabeth Curran is a New Zealand former politician who served as a member of the New Zealand Parliament for Dunedin South from 2008 to 2020. She was the Minister of Broadcasting,Communications,and Digital Media and Associate Minister for the Accident Compensation Corporation in the current Labour-led coalition government. Curran retired from politics at the 2020 general election.
Michael Allan Woodhouse is a former New Zealand politician. He was a Member of Parliament for the National Party from 2008 to 2023.
Christopher John Hipkins is a New Zealand politician who is the outgoing prime minister of New Zealand and leader of the New Zealand Labour Party since January 2023. He became member of Parliament (MP) for Remutaka in 2008,previously serving as the minister for the Public Service and minister for Education from 2017 to 2023 and the minister for Health and the COVID-19 response from 2020 to 2022.
Dame Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern is a New Zealand former politician who served as the 40th prime minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labour Party from 2017 to 2023. She was a Labour member of Parliament (MP) as a list MP from 2008 to 2017,and for Mount Albert from 2017 to 2023.
Munokoa Poto Williams is a New Zealand Labour Party politician and a member of Parliament. She was elected in a 2013 by-election and served as Minister of Conservation and Minister for Disability Issues in the Sixth Labour Government.
Clarke Timothy Gayford is a New Zealand radio and television broadcaster,presenter of the fishing documentary show Fish of the Day. He is the fiancéof Jacinda Ardern,who was prime minister of New Zealand from October 2017 to January 2023.
The Sixth Labour Government has governed New Zealand since 26 October 2017. It is headed by Chris Hipkins,the Labour Party leader and prime minister.
Heather Simpson is a New Zealand civil servant who was chief of staff for Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark for nine years and who worked with Clark for more than 20 years.
Ayesha Jennifer Verrall is a New Zealand politician,infectious-diseases physician,and researcher with expertise in tuberculosis and international health. She is a Labour Party Member of the New Zealand Parliament and a Cabinet Minister with the roles of Minister of Health and Minister for Research,Science and Innovation. She has worked as a senior lecturer at the University of Otago,Wellington and as a member of the Capital and Coast District Health Board. During the COVID-19 pandemic she provided the Ministry of Health with an independent review and recommendations for its contact-tracing approach to COVID-19 cases.
Rachel Jane Brooking is a New Zealand Labour Party politician and Member of Parliament who is currently serving as the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries and Minister for Food Safety in the Sixth Labour Government. She first became an MP at the 2020 New Zealand general election. She is a lawyer by profession.
The COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand has had far-reaching consequences on the country that went beyond the spread of the disease itself and efforts to eliminate it,including education,faith communities,Māori,mass gatherings,sports,recreation,and travel. In addition,there were several recorded cases of lockdown violations,leaks,and misinformation about the COVID-19 virus and vaccines.