And most (including her Maori Party detractors...before...) say she's made a damn fine fist of the job.

Methinks Dennis actually believes that the next Boss of the UN will be chosen on merit.

Jesus Christ, I don't think even her bitterest political enemies in NZ find her…

The Maori Party critique of her past performance seems totally valid to me. Her handling of the foreshore & seabed issue seemed incompetent at the time and nothing has happened since to validate it.

The woman is merely a…

and as that other great uniting of nations kicks off this weekend here's Clarke & Dawe's nailing of the Australian hopes;
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-28/clarke-and-dawe:-australians-to-watch-in-rio/7669290

stool life…
I believe Julia Morison has already employed the wonderful and ‘reddily’ available ‘faecal madder’
In many ways M(o)useings is a continuation of Morison’s Kabalistic and Alchemical interests in…

Excellent description.

Thank you. Hindsight certainly is a…

You have your timing wrong on this. Clark announced her intention to legislate in 2003 when English was still National leader. The Bill was passed in 2004. Here…

Audrey Young column July16

It seemed fairly clear: Clark wasn’t the U.S. pick, she wasn’t the European pick and she wasn’t from Eastern Europe whose ‘turn’ it was. Even Australia wasn’t clear about supporting her.

Despite us…

I think this may have something to do with the fact that the place of…

I haven't seen actual data on this, but looking at overall results it seems very likely to me that more Maori people give their party vote to the National Party than to the Maori Party – and…

I don't see Tim saying that. I see him saying that Helen Clark ditched Closing the Gaps, at least as a slogan. One of the reasons for the slogan being dropped is that many Maori…

Something like that. My impression is that politically-aware Maori want the party to be there and see it as representing something important – even if they're not going to vote for it.…

It is possible that The Maori Party is neither everything to all Maori nor nothing to any Maori.

um, Whanau Ora

I'm being cynical, but I'm struggling to think of any politician or party that doesn't commonly spout lines about representing "most" or "all" of some group (often New Zealanders) alongside everything it says. Claiming everyone agrees…

The Maori Party was formed to opppose something. It then became to vehicle for reactionary and greedy Maori elites to toady with the established capitalist order using…

Indeedy.

I was chatting with someone in the Far North a few months ago about a hui held at a local marae. This person was there as a member of the iwi.

The overwhelming narrative…

I agree. But the refusal to endorse Ms Clark came from…

Helen Clark was Prime Minster, not a private citizen.

Which is why the boilerplate identitarian response "context isn't magic" always annoys me.

Well, no, it isn't, although it's often important. But neither is saying "context isn't magic".

I think political context is in order here though. As Tim Watkin notes, Closing the Gaps was worked into a race issue by National – and that was before Brash’s…

I don’t normally write so bluntly, but today I will do so: the historical confiscation of my ancestors’ land was an abuse that has negative effects today. The people who…

This distinction between ‘them’ and ‘us’, between Māori and the nation, is more than hypothetical. Māori activist and writer Tim Selwyn, who threw an axe through Clark’s electorate office window in the middle of the night as a symbolic act…

That's not very long ago in Maori terms, but there is also current jockeying by the Maori Party against Labour in the Maori electorates. Recent changes that may have fed repositioning on this matter? Electing Tukuroirangi Morgan as party president.

... anyone but Rudd

Ah, thanks.

Given her statements today, I wouldn't be too surprised if she had been consulted behind the scenes.

There's clearly been something of a struggle over this within the party,

This is politics Russell, of course it is strange.

Stop wondering...it'll do yer head in.

Oh, sure, take your pick. The Maori Party, Urewera people, the people who obtained the court ruling which her govt over turned ... more the merrier. Guess I should have just said Maori. Seems Tariana might have been…

This. The Maori Party's alliance with National has left the Maori people worse off than before they took office. And all to take utu on Labour.

Polling results? #cynical

IMO Helen Clark runs her own agency too…

Whoa. She was on TV this morning saying that declining to endorse had been the party's position all along.

I guess you could draw…

Isn't there an important difference between tangata whenua and the Maori Party?

The Clark government achieved much in the area of equitable social policy. John Key’s government has intentionally increased inequity, with…

The basis of my rant on The Standard.

"By the way the current Maori Party are allies in…

Same here.

I'm confident that Helen Clark has good qualifications, at least as much as could be said for anyone, but I'd like the best person for the job---whatever that is---to actually have the job.

I do…

What bugs me is the idea that she could not have learned from experience and perhaps might be…

They don’t seem to have looked that far, or even considered what Clark’s done in the UNDP job, which is something I do feel comfortable faulting them for.

But possibly Irina Bokova, director-general of UNESCO. I don’t think she’s anywhere near as…

I think there's an advantage in having a SG who understands New Zealand and similar countries and their interests,…

Gee, that is interesting. And it’s a bit more than lukewarm, really.

“I do think she is, I do think she’s got all the skills and abilities that we would want in that position, so yes I do. Well I didn’t…

The SG position is not something any of us get to vote on. Indirectly some of us may have influence but whomever gets the role needs to reform the UN. My guess is that most votes…

However, as a commenter on TS posted this morning...Fox took exactly the opposite stance on Clark's bid for higher office on Waatea News back in…