The 9th Floor

Based on the acclaimed RNZ podcast series, and including new material, The 9th Floor by journalists Guyon Espiner and Tim Watkin presents in-depth interviews with five former Prime Ministers of New Zealand. Geoffrey Palmer, Mike Moore, Jim Bolger, Jenny Shipley and Helen Clark reflect on their time occupying the prime ministerial offices on the 9th floor of the Beehive.

Their recollections amount to a fascinating record of the decisions that shaped modern New Zealand. 

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If you’re going to lead, you have to have certain values that are important to you, otherwise you can’t lead, you just flip-flop around the place.
Jim Bolger 

Nowhere is it written down what are the powers of the Prime Minister. . . . it’s your personality, it’s the skills that you’ve got, it’s how you use the office.
Helen Clark

The question is, as always in politics, is what happens to people at the bottom? How do you make them catch up? Mike Moore

Until you’ve had the levers of power at your disposal, you don’t realise how fragile democracy is. Geoffrey Palmer

Sometimes you have to do the hard thing which is right, not the mindless thing, which may be popular, but actually is a terrible legacy to the next generation. Jenny Shipley