The 9th Floor

In part five of The 9th Floor, Guyon Espiner talks to Helen Clark about her three terms in power as she sought to draw a line under Rogernomics, unleash new social reforms and rethink New Zealand's place in the world.In part five of The 9th Floor, Guyon Espiner talks to Helen Clark about her three terms in power as she sought to draw a line under Rogernomics, unleash new social reforms and rethink New Zealand's place in the world.Watch a video version of the episode hereBy Guyon EspinerWhen you think of someone who might embrace an offer of job sharing, Helen Clark doesn't immediately spring to mind.But the idea of Winston Peters sharing the Prime Ministership over a term of government was "floated" with Labour in the failed attempts at deal-making after the 1996 election, Clark says in the final episode of The 9th Floor.Clark says she can't recall who raised it, as during the coalition talks Peters often had others communicate for New Zealand First through "back routes".She says she doesn't know how serious the proposition was and ultimately it was not the stumbling block which saw Peters reject Labour and form the first MMP government with National."It might have been loosely floated but that wasn't the sticking point. I think Finance Minister was the sticking point," she says. Regardless, the idea of sharing the top job wasn't one she could entertain. "No. You can only have one Prime Minister."No one doubted who was in charge when Clark finally got the role in 1999. Once, when Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Michael Cullen was asked what the government was going to do about some thorny issue, he replied: "Well, the government has gone skiing."Clark enjoyed that memory when we raised it during the day we spent with her in Auckland, as she came home from New York for a brief Christmas holiday. "That's a good line," she chuckled. But it's more than that. That story, and this interview, illustrate the degree to which the power of Prime Minister resides with the person, more so than with the office.After researching and conducting interviews with five former Prime Ministers it's a strange feeling to realise that the job doesn't exist. There is no job description. You can take a chair of the board, consensus approach and delegate power to Ministers as steward of the Cabinet or you can be master and commander…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

In part three of The 9th Floor, Guyon Espiner talks to Jim Bolger, who steered New Zealand through a turbulent seven years that saw more economic upheaval, a resetting of race relations and the arrival of MMP.In part three of The 9th Floor, Guyon Espiner talks to Jim Bolger, who steered New Zealand through a turbulent seven years that saw more economic upheaval, a resetting of race relations and the arrival of MMP.Watch a video version of the episode hereBy Guyon EspinerI think Jim Bolger might be about to spark a debate. Two debates, actually. One on our economic settings and the other on race relations.He says neo-liberalism has failed and suggests unions should have a stronger voice. He says Treaty of Waitangi settlements may not be full and final and that Māori language tuition should be compulsory in primary schools.It was striking, sitting in Jim Bolger's Waikanae home for the third episode of The 9th Floor, just how many of the issues he grappled with in the 1990s are still alive and being debated rigorously today.Adding to that sense of history was the fact that John Key resigned while we were discussing with Bolger what it was like to be a third-term National Prime Minister. There was a little bit of personal history for me, too, and we'll come to that. But first the policy.Bolger says neo-liberal economic policies have absolutely failed. It's not uncommon to hear that now; even the IMF says so. But to hear it from a former National Prime Minister who pursued privatisation, labour market deregulation, welfare cuts and tax reductions - well, that's pretty interesting. "They have failed to produce economic growth and what growth there has been has gone to the few at the top," Bolger says, not of his own policies specifically but of neo-liberalism the world over. He laments the levels of inequality and concludes "that model needs to change." But hang on. Didn't he, along with Finance Minister Ruth Richardson, embark on that model, or at least enthusiastically pick up from where Roger Douglas and the Fourth Labour Government left off? Bolger doesn't have a problem calling those policies neo-liberal although he prefers to call them "pragmatic" decisions to respond to the circumstances. It sets us up for the ride we go on with Bolger through the 1990s, a time of radical social and economic change."They have failed to produce economic growth and what growth there has been has gone to the few at the top" - Jim Bolger…Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

In The 9th Floor, a landmark new series for RNZ, Guyon Espiner talks to five former NZ Prime Ministers, starting with reforming lawmaker Sir Geoffrey Palmer, who became our 33rd PM in 1989.NZ's earliest living Prime Minister begins the series reflecting on the revolutionary fourth Labour government and his year as one of its three Prime Ministers.Watch a video version of the episode hereBy Guyon EspinerSir Geoffrey Palmer was one of New Zealand's most prolific lawmakers and reformers, but a reluctant politician.Imagine a country where the Prime Minister set the price of basic goods. Where the Cabinet, without having to even put it to a vote in Parliament, decided the wages you get and the taxes and interest rates you pay.That was the country Geoffrey Palmer was determined to change when he entered Parliament in 1979. It was an economy, he told The 9th Floor, that no young New Zealander would recognise. The young woman who helped us transcribe the Palmer interview - we spent most of a day with each Prime Minister and captured many hours of video and audio - proved his point perfectly, if unwittingly. "We even had a thing called Carl's Days at one point," she wrote, typing it up as she heard it. Palmer actually said Carless Days. But fair enough. Who today could imagine a country where the government regulated which days you could drive a car, or at least forced you to decide which days you would leave it at home?Palmer, a constitutional lawyer, describes Prime Minister Robert Muldoon as running an elected dictatorship between 1975 and 1984. It's a big claim. Sometimes it's the small stories that illustrate the point. Palmer recalls that when he became deputy Labour leader to David Lange in 1983 they ordered a couch for their offices but the request was denied - not by some bureaucrat but by Muldoon himself. The Prime Minister would decide the level of comfort to which his opponents could become accustomed. Palmer would change all that. He established the Parliamentary Services Commission, an independent body to provide services to MPs. He introduced regular sitting hours to Parliament. Who cares? Well, the Official Information Act 1982 - supposed to give greater transparency to government actions - was passed just before 4.30am. A lot of legislation -from the important to the self-serving - was passed in the dead of night, when some MPs were asleep, drunk or insanely tired. That is if Parliament sat at all. When Palmer first arrived Parliament would sit for four or five months a year. The rest of the time, well, the Prime Minister ran the country. …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details