Helen Clark Quotes & Sayings

Senator Obama will be taking office at a critical juncture. There are many pressing challenges facing the international community, including the global financial crisis and global warming. We look forward to working closely with President-elect Obama and his team to address these challenges. — Helen Clark

Marine protected areas, and particularly no-take zones, are very effective in allowing regeneration of fish stocks. — Helen Clark

We just sent our condolences to the President of the United States and the American people on what is a terrible, terrible tragedy. — Helen Clark

Innovation applied across the board of development is having a huge impact, and can have more. All sorts of technology can provide shortcuts, can overcome obstacles which once seemed insuperable. — Helen Clark

Of course as a small country you're not necessarily in the strongest negotiating position unless you're negotiating with other small countries. — Helen Clark

It's fair to say that, for much of my lifetime, New Zealand certainly was a property-owning democracy and working people, ordinary people, had assets. — Helen Clark

Grounded in international human rights, gender equality doesn't just improve the lives of individual women, girls, and their families; it makes economic sense, strengthens democracy, and enables long-term sustainable progress. — Helen Clark

'Never look back' is my philosophy. — Helen Clark

Girls can do anything. We do do anything and we expect to be treated as equals. — Helen Clark

We need innovation. We need great ideas that can be simply and effectively produced all over the place. — Helen Clark

New Zealand's been pretty quiet on human rights issues, which we will be taking rather more interest in, and in international labor issues. — Helen Clark

We're a nation in search of an identity, but it's quite exciting. I don't regard it as a problem. It's a challenge. — Helen Clark

Business can talk itself into a blue funk. — Helen Clark

Although biodiversity loss continues globally, many countries are significantly slowing the rate of loss by shoring up protected natural areas and the services they provide, and in expanding national park systems with tighter management and more secure funding. — Helen Clark

I think it's inevitable that New Zealand will become a republic and that would reflect the reality that New Zealand is a totally sovereign-independent 21st century nation 12,000 miles from the United Kingdom. — Helen Clark

There is also a marked global trend towards sustainable agriculture, building on traditional methods which use fewer chemical inputs, carefully manage soil and water resources, and work hand-in-hand with nature. — Helen Clark

In terms of protecting ourselves, the main issues are around how do we protect our borders [from illegal migrants and livestock and plant diseases], how do we protect our fisheries? — Helen Clark

Economic growth which strips out the planet's ecosystems is not sustainable — Helen Clark

We don't want to deal with a separatist party. — Helen Clark

Never look back. Move on. Aim high. Etc. — Helen Clark

No country will reach its full potential if its female citizens do not enjoy full equality. — Helen Clark

We need a lot of thinking and ideas. We need all the innovators, particularly with the new sustainable technologies - how do we get them to affordability so that people can generate clean energy? — Helen Clark

I think that generally New Zealand is respected for the positions it takes because it thinks them through. — Helen Clark

I felt really compromised. I think legal marriage is unnecessary and I would not have formalised the relationship [with husband Peter Davis] except for going into Parliament. I have always railed against it privately. — Helen Clark

If you neglect those who are currently poor and stable, you may create more poor and unstable people. There has been a tremendous concentration of donor interest in countries that are seen as particularly fragile - but it becomes harder to mobilise money for sub-Saharan, plain poor countries. — Helen Clark

People are optimistic about the future. — Helen Clark

If the market is left to sort matters out, social injustice will be heightened and suffering in the community will grow with the neglect the market fosters. — Helen Clark

Equity, dignity, happiness, sustainability - these are all fundamental to our lives but absent in the GDP. — Helen Clark

If ordinary means I have suddenly got to produce a household of kids and iron Peter's shirts, I'm sorry, I'm not interested. — Helen Clark

In the end, there will always be a fundamental difference of perspective between New Zealand and Australia on defense, whoever is in government. — Helen Clark

Fortunately New Zealand doesn't have land borders so we are able to be somewhat more rigorous on who gets in and out of our country than perhaps some people. — Helen Clark

It is a very small minority point of view and I think, through continuing to set the tone of tolerance, acceptance, and diversity, you just have to further marginalize such people. Hopefully one day nobody will think that way. — Helen Clark

I only take on roles that I'm passionate about. Life is too short to do things that you're not happy with. — Helen Clark

In terms of having views and being prepared to express them, yes, I think New Zealand's had a leadership role in a lot of things. — Helen Clark

Any serious shift towards more sustainable societies has to include gender equality. — Helen Clark

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries on earth. Security issue or no security issue, there would need to be a focus on it. — Helen Clark

Someone's got to break the glass ceiling, and once it's broken, everybody else comes clamouring up behind. — Helen Clark

I think the penny has dropped that the All Blacks aren't automatically just going to be the best team in the world, — Helen Clark

Well, there have been periods in the past when prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand were at each others' throats publicly and frequently. That's not productive at all. — Helen Clark

Of course I have an opinion on many things but I don't micromanage. — Helen Clark

Adopting and promoting sustainable production practices require concerted effort, something which in practice is too often missing or insufficient. Making this shift at the scale required demands forward-looking leadership in the public and private sectors alike. — Helen Clark

Well in the end the world can crank itself up to sanctions, as it has with Zimbabwe, another sad case. — Helen Clark

I don't know that you're ever going to persuade New Zealanders that they're not going to own their own homes and I'm not going to try. — Helen Clark

The Prime Minister is head of team but its not a one woman act. I've been called all those things. Intellectual, sharp-tongued, all true. But what New Zealander is like is to know that someone is in charge and in the end the buck stops with the Prime Minister. — Helen Clark

I have no beliefs of a religious kind. — Helen Clark

I deeply detest social distinction and snobbery, and in that lies my strong aversion to titular honours. — Helen Clark

When women are able to live in a safe and secure environment, they can participate effectively in the economy and society. This helps overcome poverty, reduces inequalities and is beneficial for children's nutrition, health and school attendance. Every woman and girl has the right to live in safety in her home and community. — Helen Clark

As New Zealanders, we've been in on the United Nations from the very beginning, played a role in the drafting of the charter - it means a lot to us that those processes are followed. — Helen Clark

New Zealand and SA should take this dimension into account, the skills South Africans are presently contributing to New Zealand. — Helen Clark

Well, we don't think for a moment that either the U.S. or Australia are out to damage the New Zealand economy, but if there were a sustained period in which they had a free-trade agreement and New Zealand didn't have that same arrangement with the States, that could be both trade- and investment-distorting. — Helen Clark

Well of course New Zealand isn't anti-American. — Helen Clark

Health and education are always issues. — Helen Clark

I think the issue of North Korea is one where the international community as a whole has to work to resolve the crisis. — Helen Clark

I'm not into power for the sake of it. — Helen Clark

I've been round Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, and China in the last few months and the message that I've been taking is that New Zealand is building an up market dynamic into a connected economy. And that we are not the old-fashioned, ship mutton kind of product the people associate their export in work. — Helen Clark