Three weeks ago, Dr Clark, the Health Minister, was demoted to the bottom of the Cabinet rankings and stripped of his associate finance minister role after admitting he had breached Alert Level 4 lockdown by visiting Doctor’s Point beach, 20km from his home.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she would have fired Dr Clark, but that he needed to stay in his role as health minister as the Government dealt with the Covid-19 pandemic.
At the time, Dr Clark said he had not yet thought about whether he would stand down from Parliament at the September election.
"I have been told to get on with my job and that is what I will be doing."
Yesterday, a spokesman for Dr Clark said that soon after the minister admitted his breach of Level 4 rules, he stated he would stand at the next election.
"That has not changed."
Dr Clark, who had been at his Opoho home during Level 4, returned to Wellington this week as Parliament reconvened.
He has answered parliamentary questions each day, and on Tuesday spoke several times in the Annual Review debate answering questions about issues his health portfolio, including Covid-19.
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Comments
Hold him up to the light. Not a brain in sight!
His boss is no titan in the brains department either.
Her handling of him is just one of many strikes against her.
But being plastered over the tv every day with free electioneering, the idiotic masses will lap her rubbish up.
The effects of her silly decisions won't be seen till after the election, then we we see the full train wreck.
Who is this guy? I thought Bloomfield was the minister of health.
I can't even say with a straight face: "The clue bird is circling!" But then again, the people of Dunedin (who actually voted) put Hawkins in as Mayor (on the 11th round of the STV redistribution). The STV makes anybody a viable candidate even Clark. So he's actually got as good of a shot as anybody else. It doesn't really matter who's elected. They all crawl out from under the same rock! O how I wish I voted for Scout now!
@WandaW - why on Earth would you vote for Scout? Never met a nastier person!
As for Dr Clark (note: NOT a medical doctor), if I were a Labour voter, I think I'd be casting a donkey vote next time around. Better a donkey vote than a real live donkey!
WandaW - The general election doesn't use STV.
Clarke got 21,259 votes (57%) , 11,754 votes ahead of Woodhouse. I like him, he's the only MP who has knocked on our door to talk to us and find out our opinions.
I can't imagine Woodhouse as Minister of Health, he doesn't seem to have any new ideas and talks business waffle.
Work has started on Dunedin's new hospital, as promised. National talked of a new hospital sometime, somewhere, paid by someone.
Sure, Clarke made a mistake driving to the beach 20 minutes. But Bridges drove 7 hours from Tauranga and back, several times for a video conference call. If he can't manager to use basic technology and arrange decent internet connection, what hope has he got running the country? Even Key is busy promoting someone else.
Hey lux...just because you like him and think he's great doesn't mean others feel the same way. He lied and was caught 3 times during lockdown. That alone makes him unqualified for the position. As far as national...bridges lacks what it takes to be pm.
@Timmy - Bridges certainly lacks what it takes to be PM. So, as we've seen over the last few weeks, does Ardern. Remember, she was Winston's choice, not ours.
Ardern has given us teddy bears, tooth fairies, feather earrings, and messages to "be kind" while taking more from the pockets of New Zealanders in two months than the TOTAL of all NZ debt combined in history. (So kind!)
No communist I know of could have done a better job.
I think your response typifies the attitude of most people in Dunedin when it comes to voting. Our choices are limited to the best of the most unqualified candidates. While Clark did capture the majority of the votes its important to remember that less than 60% of the people in the electorate actually voted. He only won 34% of the Dunedin North Electorate. 57% sounds impressive but is very misleading. This continues to be a problem for Dunedin and has led to the adoption of the STV. In the last local election only 51% of the Dunedin residents could be bothered to vote. And now because of the STV, Hawkins who won a paltry 7% of populations vote, is elected mayor. The issue isn’t national Vs Labour. It's about having the best-qualified candidates who possess honesty and integrity. We continue to lower our standards and justify the acceptance of these unqualified candidates. Do you really want unethical liars with no integrity representing you? I don’t! They both need to go! Don’t confuse the personal attributes of a politician with his ethical qualifications. Clark probably is a nice guy but the multiple lapses in judgement, his inability to define the standard means he has to go!