The Labour Party will sort out its leadership issues and she has no involvement, says former Labour leader and Prime Minister Helen Clark.

Helen declined to comment on the resignation of Labour leader David Shearer when she attended a cocktail party at the Athenree Homestead near Katikati despite the fact there has been speculation in the media that she may have influenced David Shearer's decision to step down. Labour has yet to appoint a new leader.

Helen Clark talking to those who attended the Athenree Homestead Cocktail party on Friday night.

Helen Clark administrator for the United Nations Development Programme is patron of the Athenree Homestead Trust.

To a question about calls from some in her former Mt. Albert electorate for her to return Helen says 'it is a very loyal electorate. I was its member of parliament for 15 years and before me was Warren Freer who was the representative for 34 years.” Mt Albert has elected only Labour MPs since it was first contested at the 1946 election.

Helen says she is enjoying her current and challenging role as administrator for the United Nations Development Programme for which she is ranked as the 21st most powerful woman in the world by Forbes magazine.

Helen, who is patron of the Athenree Homestead Trust, attended its Friday evening cocktail party with her husband sociologist Peter Davis and her father George Clark of Waihi Beach, along with a number of community leaders including Coromandel National MP Scott Simpson and Western Bay of Plenty District Council Mayor Ross Paterson.

The largely restored homestead, built in 1878 by Ulster Irish pioneers Hugh and Adela Stewart, was somewhere her late mother Margaret enjoyed visiting and Helen says she is grateful to the trust for planting a rose in her memory.

'When I return to New Zealand I tend to see our heritage through different eyes. It is important to retain this country's historic buildings and restore them authentically in order to give current generations an understanding of what life was like for the early settlers.”

Helen says Katikati and Athenree's Ulster heritage is an important part of our history and is the community which gave rise John Mulgan, the author of the great New Zealand novel Man Alone, whose family was among the early pioneers.

Athenree Homestead chairperson Trish Coates told those at the function the homestead has a number of projects which require funding, including cataloguing and copying its archive of original documents, establishing the gardens, moving the former Athenree Railway Station building closer to the house to develop it as a cafe, and the re-construction of the final wing of the home, which has an estimated initial cost of $150,000.

Trish says the trust welcomes donation and assistance.

To find out more or to visit the homestead go to www.athenreehomestead.org.nz