Mr Clark, an arable farmer from Valetta, said the sizeable swing to Labour showed the election was always going to be a Covid election.
People were scared of Covid-19 and being able to close borders gave us an advantage to fight it, he said.
"But it ain’t over; it’s just beginning."
Mr Clark was concerned there didn’t seem to be a plan to integrate New Zealand into the rest of the world, or consideration given to long-term needs such as getting enough seasonal workers in the country to pick the national fruit crop, which may be "laid to waste" as a result.
"As of now we have no tourism sector, which had been touted as New Zealand’s largest earner of foreign exchange, arguably," he said.
"That is now gone, and isn’t likely to resume any time soon.
"At the moment we are sheltering New Zealand citizens from the brutal reality of the post-Covid world."
He said the use of wage subsidies, business loans and other schemes of expenditure was "borrowing our grandchildren’s taxes to pay today’s bills. That cannot go on forever.
"New Zealand is going to have to live within its means and off the income of the goods and services we can sell to the rest of the world," he said.
Just as any business needed to balance its budget, so did New Zealand.
He was hopeful the Labour Government, with its majority mandate, was up to the task.
He paid tribute to new MP Jo Luxton on her electorate win and the hard work she had done to build her profile in Rangitata, which was not only a rural seat but also included urban and industrial areas of Timaru.
"With the honour of being an electorate MP comes the responsibility of representing all the sectors of the district and articulating their concerns back to Wellington,’’
he said.
They had regular catch-up sessions already to discuss issues.
"Farmers are very concerned about the water regulations, they were poorly considered and excluded the farming sector from drawing the regulations up.
"In many instances they’re unworkable, unachievable with untenable timeframes and they’re going to have to have some changes.’’
