"In a modern democracy... You have to have responsiveness and you have to have public involvement in the decisions all the time, not just the time of elections.
What happens in NZ is we tend to go to sleep between the elections and there isn't enough public involvement in the decision-making system. We need in this country much more deliberative democracy if we are not to go the way they've gone in the US or Britain ..."
#GuyonEspiner: "You'd hoped for a majority in 2002. The polls said it was possible."
#HelenClark: "I think with MMP it was probably never realistic. Whatever the polls said... kiwis in the end quite like the government not having it all it's own way, having to talk with others..."
"...we backtracked on our election pledge to remove the surtax on superannuation. Because morally I couldn't justify to myself that we would give a tax concession to the wealthy retirees - which removing the surtax would do - while we were taking some off those who were in much poorer circumstances."
"[Mike Moore] would eventually rise to lead the WTO - the highest international position ever held by a NZer - and a respected champion of globalisation."
Even in 2017, "respected champion of globalisation" was an oxymoron. I'd argue that even then, Helen Clark's tenure as head of the United Nations Development Programme was a more respectable position.
"As one famous Australian constitutional lawyer said, and it remains the case even under MMP... NZ is an Executive paradise. The sovereignty of Parliament in NZ - which means Parliament can pass any law it likes - is actually the sovereignty of the Executive, not of the Parliament. And that is why so many Opposition MPs have such a frustrating life, because they have very little influence over anything."