Clark’s return no help to Ardern

The most feted New Zealand politician of the past week is one who has not been in Parliament for 10 years. While today’s members of Parliament grapple with the everyday compromises, disappointments and rare triumphs of political life, a former leader has taken on a new, Olympian role as an oracle who is above it all.

Helen Clark’s book of speeches from a life in politics, Women Equality Power, was probably timed for the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage in New Zealand. Its publication has seen her fill venues throughout the country. Audiences have enjoyed her stories of determination and wry commentary on the sexism of politics.

At a sold-out event in Christchurch, she told former underling turned mayor Lianne Dalziel and a rapt, largely female crowd: ‘‘There’s no such thing as a glass ceiling, just a thick layer of men.’’

At times, it has been like seeing a former monarch in exile who believes she was somehow usurped or deposed and even feels underappreciated. In this narrative, Clark’s failure to win the top job at the United Nations boils down to institutional sexism and an unwillingness to allow a strong leader to make dramatic changes to a stolid organisation, rather than other personal or historical factors.

Life after politics is difficult. What do you do when the top job is over? Former prime ministers have tended to follow a convention that they do not comment on or criticise current leaders. Jim Bolger’s claim in 2017 that neoliberalism has failed and unions should be stronger can be read as a mea culpa about the 1990s rather than an attack on the John Key-bill English Government.

In that context, Clark’s input into the current travails of the party she once led seem unhelpful at best. She has said she would have handled Labour’s infamous summer camp scandal differently. Under her watch, ‘‘people didn’t keep their jobs’’, she reminded us. She also praised aspects of Ardern’s leadership, including her approach to business confidence, but this clear indication that she would have expected heads to roll sent a strong signal. It cemented an impression, already developing in the public mind, that Ardern was weak and compromised whereas Clark had been swift and decisive.

The reappearance of Clark, and the reminder of her steely resolve, coincided with a series of destabilising problems for the Ardern Government. Should Ardern have been tougher on the underperforming Clare Curran? What would Clark have done about the allegations against Meka Whaitiri? Would Clark have allowed herself to be embarrassed on Nauru as Ardern was this week?

Life after politics has also released a bravery in Clark that contrasts with a cautiousness in politics. She has become an outspoken advocate for the reform of drug laws, which was not a priority of her government.

As Sir Ray Avery has learned, Clark is also a formidable opponent with a ferocious intellect who may be remembered as the most competent and capable prime minister of the MMP era. But she risks being both underemployed and overexposed in her role as a ‘‘freelance political advocate’’, and nostalgia for the days of Aunty Helen does the Ardern Government few favours.

‘‘It cemented an impression, already developing in the public mind, that Ardern was weak and compromised whereas Clark had been swift and decisive.’’