Nationwide: Labour Party Youth Conference

A 24-year-old Helen Clark (complete with long flowing locks) features in this NZBC current affairs footage from the annual conference of Young Labour — the Labour Party’s youth division. Twenty five years before she will become NZ’s first elected female Prime Minister, Clark is a junior politics lecturer making her way in the party machine as she chairs a session about abortion law reform. The room might be smoke filled but the atmosphere is more earnest than Machiavellian; and, while commitment to the cause is strong, expectations are more finite.

A place where youth delegates can get together, have a good talk. It’s a bit like a smoke conference. They go away feeling wonderful, refreshed and possibly they will remember what they said later on. I hope not.

– Interviewee