Category Archives: New Zealand politics

Jacinda Ardern facing biggest challenge yet as New Zealand switches to Covid suppression

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The prime minister has enjoyed huge support during the pandemic – but the country’s new course may force unpopular trade-offs

This week, New Zealand’s locked-down cities woke to a brave new world of lifted restrictions: state-sanctioned picnics in parks, the prospect of reopening schools, a chance to reunite with friends and family. Infusing the visions of grass-stained blankets and beachside beers, however, is a strong dose of Covid anxiety. Cases continue to circulate in the community, and the country’s long-held commitment to elimination is being been cast off.

As New Zealand steps into the unknown with its Covid approach, so does its prime minister, Jacinda Ardern. Having brought the country through the pandemic largely unscathed so far, she was richly rewarded with political popularity and trust. Now the prime minister faces the difficult task of guiding it through a new era of Covid suppression – and it could be the most significant political challenge she has faced yet.

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John Key calling New Zealand’s Covid response ‘North Korean’ isn’t just lazy rhetoric, it’s wrong | Brian Ng

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Irresponsible statements are fuel for those who falsely believe their rights have been taken away

When former prime minister John Key referred to New Zealand as a “smug hermit kingdom” in his widely disseminated op-ed, I thought it was pushing it a bit, but not completely off the mark – we closed our borders to outsiders, after all. What I didn’t expect was for him to start calling the government’s response “North Korean”. This isn’t just lazy rhetoric, it’s obviously wrong.

This is what North Korea’s been through: it closed its borders at the beginning of 2020, before most of the world put itself into lockdown. It stopped all shipments in and out of the country, including China, which is its largest trading partner and aid donor. Fishing in its surrounding waters and even salt harvesting was halted, for fear Covid may be transmitted that way. Foreign diplomatic staff left on one-way tickets: one group of Russians took a hand-powered rail cart out of the country.

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‘People are tired’: Chris Hipkins, the New Zealand minister battling to eliminate Covid

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As the country’s much-lauded pandemic policy reaches a critical moment, Hipkins insists it remains committed to elimination

It’s New Zealand’s 1pm Covid press conference, and Chris Hipkins is eyeballing a room of journalists. He stands, sanitising his hands, and takes a moment to look around.

“We’ll start with some good news,” he begins.

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New Zealand’s pandemic housing policy has baked in Māori inequality for generations | Iain White

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In Jacinda Ardern’s ‘team of 5 million’, some players have been rewarded very differently to others

The only thing more predictable than rising house prices is the tenor of stories as monthly data from governments or the real estate sector are reported. Record highs in particular places, predictions of trends from economists. Or, the young couple who managed to “get on the housing ladder”, but upon reading you realise it was with financial help from parents.

However, behind these articles a much larger housing story has gradually unfolded. An account of huge and growing inequality. How a government policy designed to respond to the global pandemic and the fear of economic recession has not just created significant wealth, but distributed it in such a concentrated way that it will change the nature of Aotearoa New Zealand for generations to come.

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Resolutions but no revolution as National ends its annual conference as divided as ever

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There was a degree of heat, but not much light cast on the future of a party still recovering from last year’s election thumping

The National Party has just wrapped up the final day of its annual general meeting. There was a bit more drama than usual. Former speaker of the house David Carter resigned from the board before the close of the meeting after failing to win the presidency from Peter Goodfellow, who has held the role since 2009.

Various changes were made to the party rules. A nod to the Treaty of Waitangi as the country’s founding document was inserted into the party constitution. There was heated debate on questions of party governance, with delegates opting to keep the board on a short leash following a disastrous election last year.

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Jacinda Ardern apologises over New Zealand ‘dawn raids’ in 1970s – video

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New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has formally apologised to Pacific Island people who were targeted for deportation in aggressive home raids in the mid-1970s. Ardern attended a ceremony at the Auckland town hall during which she made the apology on behalf of the nation for the racially charged 'dawn raids', which targeted Pasifika people for deportation. ‘The government expresses its sorrow, remorse, and regret that the dawn raids and random police checks occurred and that these actions were ever considered appropriate,’ Ardern said.

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New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern implies opposition leader is a ‘Karen’ in parliament debate – video

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New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has told opposition leader Judith Collins changes to the country's hate speech laws won't prevent her from being called a Karen. The opposition leader referenced a tweet she was sent asking if calling "a middle-aged white woman a 'Karen’ now be a crime under Jacinda Ardern’s law?" Ardern responded, telling parliament: "That is absolutely incorrect and I apologise that means these laws will not protect the member from such a claim."

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Jacinda Ardern puppet like ‘something from Game of Thrones’, says New Zealand PM

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Prime minister has been elevated from a DJ in 2018 to ‘some kind of celestial being’ this year in traditional puppet event

A New Zealand pub, known for its lifesize puppets of New Zealand politicians, has unveiled one of Jacinda Ardern, who called it “a cross between some kind of celestial being and something from Game of Thrones”.

The Backbencher pub, opposite the parliament house in Wellington, has been creating politician puppets for 30 years, and on Tuesday night unveiled its second puppet of the prime minister.

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Jacinda Ardern criticises new biography, saying author misled her

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New Zealand prime minister says she agreed to interviews on basis that it was about a group of female leaders and ‘not specific to me’

Jacinda Ardern has distanced herself from a recently released biography documenting her leadership style, less than a week after joining widespread criticism of a film that focuses on her role leading New Zealand during the Christchurch terror attacks.

The new book – Jacinda Ardern: Leading with Empathy – was written by activist and journalist Supriya Vani, and writer Carl A. Harte, based on “Vani’s exclusive interviews with Ardern”, according to its seller, Simon & Schuster.

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China urges New Zealand to work together and ‘rise above distractions’

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Beijing responds to Nanaia Mahuta’s concerns that New Zealand faces a ‘storm’ of anger from China amid rising Asia-Pacific tensions

China has urged New Zealand to work in “the same direction, make the pie of cooperation bigger, rise above external distractions”, in response to comments made by foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta in a Guardian interview.

Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, said that progress in relations could be achieved “on the premise that the two sides have long been committed to mutual respect, mutual trust and win-win results”. He urged Wellington to work with China to advance a “comprehensive strategic partnership”.

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Ardern makes good on child poverty promise, but a long road lies ahead

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Analysis: the PM has spent big on tackling social issues, but it will still take New Zealand only halfway to meeting her child poverty goal

When she came to power, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, grabbed international headlines for her commitments to national wellbeing and solving social issues such as child poverty, homelessness and the mental health crisis. Until now, progress on many of those hallmark issues has been plodding – or at times non-existent – making critics sceptical of whether the rhetoric on wellbeing had lined up with reality. The budget will be welcomed by progressives, as evidence the government is following through on assistance for the country’s most vulnerable.

A multibillion-dollar income boost for impoverished families was a headline item in the country’s new budget, announced on Thursday. Ardern’s government looked to harness the momentum of a better-than-expected Covid recovery to spend big on social problems.

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Māori party co-leader ejected from New Zealand parliament after performing haka – video

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An Indigenous New Zealand lawmaker was thrown out of parliament for performing a Māori haka in protest against what he said were racist arguments.

Rawiri Waititi told lawmakers in the chamber that he was forced to listen to a 'constant barrage of insults' directed towards Indigenous people. The speaker, Trevor Mallard, told Waititi to sit down, but instead he performed the haka, a traditional dance or challenge accompanied by a chant.

'Order. The member will now leave the chamber,' Mallard told Waititi, which he did along with his co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer

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Judith Collins’ comments on Māori health policy are a diversion | Claire Robinson

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National leader’s warning about greater Māori self-governance are designed to deflect from her unpopularity

In October I wrote in praise of the Māori party’s Mana Motuhake policy, a 25-year plan to improve Māori outcomes based on Māori asserting their right to exercise tino rangatiratanga – roughly translated as self-management, self-determination and self-governance – over all their domains. I predicted that whether the Māori party made it back into parliament in 2020 or not (it did), this call was only going to get louder.

After a speech last Saturday by the National party opposition leader, Judith Collins, this issue has been catapulted to the middle of the political agenda. Collins’ speech drew attention to a report named He Puapua, written by an expert working group charged by the Labour-led coalition cabinet in 2019 to develop a plan and engagement process to realise the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (DRIP), which the John Key-led National coalition government signed up to in 2010.

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The secret of Jacinda Ardern’s success lies in her conservatism | Bryce Edwards

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The New Zealand prime minister’s appeal comes from adding compassion, something her rivals have been unable to emulate

The biggest misconception about Jacinda Ardern is that she is a pioneering progressive or socialist. This is especially so outside New Zealand.

Understandably the global media paint the prime minister as a counter to other, more rightwing or illiberal, leaders. Similarly many overseas progressive activists and intellectuals have seized on her as someone they can learn from in their search for a way forward for the political left.

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New Zealand’s first Latin American MP says adopted country has many blind spots

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Country’s ‘slick branding machine’ can’t hide ‘entrenched inequality’, says Ricardo Menéndez March

New Zealand’s first Latin American MP has had a controversial start: he’s been labelled “disrespectful” for his attitude to senior citizens, called out the government for hypocrisy over the country’s “100% Pure” marketing campaign, and upset monarchists with a chihuahua meme about having to swear allegiance to the Queen.

Ricardo Menéndez March, who describes himself as a “proud socialist, transgressive queer”, is one of three new Green party MPs in parliament after a huge swing to the left in October’s general election.

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Photos of New Zealand politicians and their bookcases are creepily revealing

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We are what we read; a bookcase is an X-ray of its owner, their ambitions and fears, their IQ and their desires

A politician anywhere near a book is a rare and incongruous sight. They exist as creatures who act on a range of terrible decisions. It doesn’t do for them to be seen floating around in the nebulous, dreamy world of literature, with its nuances and its conflicting ideas. But all photo opportunities are good photo opportunities when you’re running for office, and I had every confidence that New Zealand’s political leaders would say yes when I approached them this year to pose beside their bookcases.

It was for the series of photographs I run every Friday to illustrate the weekly best-seller chart at Newsroom, where I serve as books editor. For quite a long time I asked authors and various other literary types to send in photographs of their bookcases. Most of the photos appeared without any response. They were kind of interesting at the same time as being kind of really boring. Eventually I realised it might be a better idea to ask the authors to be in the photographs as well, and I extended the idea to invite political leaders in 2020 as an election year carrot.

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Jacinda Ardern declares ‘climate emergency’ in New Zealand – video

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New Zealand has declared a climate emergency and committed to a carbon-neutral government by 2025, in what the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, called 'one of the greatest challenges of our time'.

Speaking in parliament after its introduction, Ardern said the country must 'act with urgency'. Wednesday’s declaration also said the government would 'demonstrate what is possible to other sectors of the economy by reducing the government’s own emissions and becoming a carbon-neutral government by 2025'.

Thirty-two other nations have formally acknowledged the global crisis by declaring a climate emergency


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Ibrahim Omer, New Zealand’s first African MP, delivers moving maiden speech – video

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Ibrahim Omer, New Zealand's first African MP, has recounted in his maiden speech his journey as a refugee out of Eritrea via Syria to New Zealand, sparking emotional scenes in the chamber. The Labour MP described how he worked hard as a cleaner by night, and a politics student by day, before being elected. Omer delivered parts of his speech in his native tongue, Saho, as well as te reo Māori.

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New Zealand’s politicians are too middle-class to tackle our biggest problems | Bryce Edwards

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They can celebrate diversity and gender equality, but Labour must deal with more traditional leftwing concerns like inequality and housing

A very liberal revolution has been occurring in New Zealand politics. Our parliament and Labour-led government are more socially liberal and diverse than ever before, and that’s something for progressives to celebrate.

Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister, embodies this, and is lauded as a breath of fresh air in a political world traditionally dominated by “stale, male, and pale” social conservatives. She has just reshuffled the cabinet of her re-elected government, bringing more women, Māori and Pasifika into senior positions. It is the most diverse cabinet in history. The appointment of moko kauae-wearing Nanaia Mahuta as the minister of foreign affairs epitomises this modernisation. Similarly, we have our first openly gay deputy prime minister.

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Despite her mandate, Ardern’s agenda will be resolutely middle of the road | Tova O’Brien

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Labour’s smart politics will come at the expense of its fundamental values, and be driven by its desire to stay in power

The prime minister of New Zealand has just begun a victory lap of the country, though Jacinda Ardern would prefer we think of it more as a “thank you” tour.

After a successful but gruelling six-week election campaign she is hitting the two-lane blacktop once again, deploying to the regions of New Zealand.

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