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Helen Clark clears way for third term in New Zealand

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday sealed an historic third term in office a month after elections by securing support for a Labour-led government from three minor political parties.

As part of the extensive deal-making, populist New Zealand First Party leader Winston Peters -- who once claimed New Zealand was being "colonized" by Asians -- has been appointed foreign minister.

Questions were immediately raised about the ability of the new government to complete its three-year term, but Clark -- the first Labour leader to win three consecutive elections -- said that the alliance would last.

"I have every confidence that these arrangements, which we have been working on slowly for a month, now are durable and will enable us to provide a strong and stable and progressive government for the parliamentary term ahead," Clark told a press conference.

Her Labour Party won 50 of the 121 seats in parliament in the inconclusive Sept. 17 elections. She said yesterday that she would form a coalition with the Progressive Party's sole member of parliament (MP) Jim Anderton, who would be in the Cabinet.

She has also agreed deals for support from the United Future Party, which has three seats, and New Zealand First with seven seats, giving her a slim majority with 61 seats.

United Future leader Peter Dunne will be revenue minister. Both he and Peters, who will hold both the foreign affairs and racing portfolios, will be ministers outside the Cabinet.

The left-leaning Green Party, which has six seats and had sometimes campaigned jointly with Labour before last month's election, was the main loser in the negotiations.

It has agreed to abstain on votes of no confidence in the government in return for getting some of its policies implemented.

Both United Future and New Zealand First had said they would not accept the Greens being in the Cabinet and Clark had no choice but to bring the two centrist parties into the fold in order to secure a parliamentary majority.

The center-right National Party, which won 48 seats in the election, will be in opposition, along with the right-wing ACT Party with two MPs. The four members of the indigenous Maori Party said they will vote on an issue-by-issue basis.

Clark has been holding difficult negotiations with the minor parties since final results from the election were announced on Oct. 1. Peters was in a coalition government with the National Party in the mid-1990s in which he served as treasurer -- a post created specifically for him -- and deputy prime minister. That coalition collapsed in 1998.
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