[3][2] After leaving professional ministry he continued to provide celebrant services, including at the civil union of Grant Robertson in 2009, as well Trevor Mallard's second marriage in 2014.

[7][8] Clark later returned to the University of Otago and in 2004 completed a PhD on the work of German/New Zealand refugee and existentialist thinker Helmut Rex.

[20][21][22][23] Clark completed an Eisenhower Fellowship in 2013,[24] focusing much of his trip on the priority accorded to the values of fairness and freedom in New Zealand and the United States.

[31][32] His delegations in the finance portfolio included expenditure control in the social sector and responsibility for Crown Research Institutes and community trusts.

[35] On 30 April 2018, Clark conceded that the Government would be unable to deliver on its election promise of reducing general practitioner fees but indicated that it would be introduced in phases over time.

[38][39] In mid-June 2018, Clark was criticised by employees of the Counties Manukau District Health Board for allegedly trying to silence their reports of run-down buildings, asbestos, and overflowing sewage at Middlemore Hospital.

[40][41] Clark subsequently apologised to Counties Manukau DHB chairman Rabin Rabindran for the handling of the Middlemore saga.

[43] In mid-July 2018, Clark was forced to publicly defend his decision to go on a family holiday prior to a planned national strike by the Nurses Organisation.

[47][48] In early September 2018, Clark suspended the troubled Oracle IT project to overhaul the District Health Boards' ageing IT systems.

[49] In mid-November, Clark announced that the Government had scrapped plans for a proposed third medical school in the Waikato region on the grounds that the project would have cost billions to set up and operate.

In early April 2020, Clark drew media attention and public criticism when he drove to a Dunedin park two kilometres away from his home to ride a mountain bike trail despite the Government's COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

[60] His remark was interpreted by some journalists as blaming Bloomfield for the Ministry of Health's mismanagement of quarantine following a recent outbreak stemming from overseas travel.

[60][61] The Spinoff's editor Toby Manhire opined that Clark's "humility bypass" created problems for Ardern's government.

[62] Left-wing commentator Chris Trotter described Clark's handling of the situation as "shameful" and called on Ardern to dismiss him from his position.

[64][65] In early July 2020, Clark announced that he was resigning as Minister of Health, stating that "I've always taken a view that the team must come first ... so I've made the call that it's best for me to step aside."

Instead, he would pick up the Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Statistics, Digital Economy and Communications and State Owned Enterprises portfolios, as well as becoming Minister Responsible for the Earthquake Commission.