Helen Clark discusses Foundation's new book on Q+A with Jack Tame

On Sunday, the Rt Hon Helen Clark joined Q+A with Jack Tame to discuss Facing Up to Our Future: Challenges and Choices for New Zealand, a major new book from the Helen Clark Foundation, released ahead of this year's general election. You can watch a recording of that interview above.

Helen said the book's core message was that New Zealanders have more in common than divides them. "There are quite a number of identified challenges which across the political spectrum people agree need to be tackled, but we haven't really found a way of coming together."

The book draws on a wide range of authors to set out practical solutions. Among these solutions, Helen discussed giving the Commerce Commission greater power over big retailers, and establishing an independent parliamentary budget office "so we don't have the wool pulled over our eyes by political parties." She also pointed to the fraying of New Zealand's social fabric and economy since her time as Prime Minister, citing a run of regional industry closures driven in part by high electricity prices.

Edited by Emeritus Professor Peter Davis and bringing together 21 of the country's leading thinkers, Facing Up to Our Future confronts the long-term pressures shaping New Zealand's next decades: climate change and the energy transition, the cost of living, housing and home ownership, health, fiscal sustainability, infrastructure, democracy and transparency, the Crown–Māori relationship, and the future of Pacific communities in Aotearoa. Structured around four themes — Economy and Wellbeing, Society and Culture, Governance and Government, and Environment and Place — the book moves beyond diagnosis to a wide-ranging set of practical reforms, including a cross-party housing accord, an independent fiscal watchdog, a Parliamentary Commissioner for Future Generations, and a renewed commitment to long-term, evidence-based policymaking.

With forewords by the Rt Hon Helen Clark and Professor Toeolesulusulu Damon Salesa, Facing Up to Our Future is published by Dunmore Publishing.

You can reserve your copy or read more about the book here.