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Sunday, August 18, 2024

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Why does the Helen Clark Foundation say it is "non-partisan" when it is not non-partisan?


Why does the Helen Clark Foundation say it is "non-partisan" when it is not non-partisan? Why does it quietly appear to be taking Taxpayer Subsidies when it is really a Labour think tank?

The Helen Clark Foundation is a Charitable Trust, registered by the Charities Commission. It proudly proclaims, "We are an independent, non-partisan public policy think tank based in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland". If you believe it is independent & non-partisan, you'd believe anything.

It says its Board is "independent". Its Chair is Former PM Clark's husband. It has small assets though quite large income, presumably coming from the fund-raising powers of its Patron, Helen Clark. What's most curious is that its "partner" is a public university in NZ, namely Auckland University of Technology (AUT). The Foundation says AUT "works with us to share expertise & resources to deliver evidence-based perspective & public policy research". Hang on .. AUT shares staff time & resources? Does it provide free office space in central Auckland as part of that deal? Its hard to locate rent paid in the Foundation's accounts. Did I miss it? Resources provided by AUT inevitably come from tax-payer pockets. Is that why the Clark Foundation wants to say it's non-partisan? Its events & publications, often about environmental & inequality issues, don't look that way at all to me. Why invite anti-inequality campaigners like Max Rashbrooke to its events, though not dream of inviting a guy like me, even though I know Clark's husband a bit, being a past colleague? From former Labour Minister Grant Robertson shacking up at Otago, to Clark using AUT's resources, this political takeover of our Universities has got to stop.

Sources:
https://helenclark.foundation/about-us/our-partners/


Professor Robert MacCulloch holds the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics at Auckland University. He has previously worked at the Reserve Bank, Oxford University, and the London School of Economics. He runs the blog Down to Earth Kiwi from where this article was sourced.

8 comments:

anonymous said...

Let us hope Peter Gluckman's enquiry about NZ Unis. and their ( dubious) future accesses this article.

Anonymous said...

Communist think tank.

Bill T said...

Charitable status is hard to support. AUT should be returned to a trade type school

Robert Arthur said...

My view would be coloured by whether or not the Foundation encourages maorification at universities. In her political career Clark showed better judgement in that field than most.

Anonymous said...

Bill T and others - "The action of AUT going from a Polytechnic/ Trade Training domain, was what the academic staff wanted at the time". The moment the govt. of the day "anointed the head of the new AUT"- trade training start to fade and more academic subject matter appeared, so did the increase of staff, and their roles in "research" and a defined socialist lean. AUT have been in the news, of late, sadly for the stances taken by Academic staff to matters Maori, which has earned them "rebukes" from the Public at large and conservative media. I am not sure why the Minister of Education has not had a word with them, but then again "the dear lady" has ongoing issues with the Ministry Of Education. Which she needs to resolve very quickly.

TJS said...

Wasn't Helen Clark voted out in 2008?

It's a shame she is not working at the UN, it was better here without her but then she did some evil stuff there too.

Y'know when you've had your time and you've had a pretty good go too, fair suck of the sav and all that, give it a break! Taihoa and let others have a go. There's a good sport.

"'Cause were sick of you freeloading".

anonymous said...

AUT VC Damon Salesa is husband of Labour MP Jenny Salesa - part of the CRT network.

Anonymous said...

Our own swamp full of haters and destroyers. Greedy power crazed commies.