Category Archives: New Zealand politics

New Zealand unemployment at 4% in surprise fall during coronavirus pandemic

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Data shows jobless rate at an eye-popping low of 4% after strict lockdown, but underemployment is higher

Figures showing joblessness in New Zealand has fallen during the coronavirus pandemic have been welcomed by the government and provoked shock and sharp scepticism from economists.

The government agency Statistics New Zealand on Wednesday produced an eye-popping figure of 4% unemployment for the three months to the end of June, down from 4.2% last quarter – before coronavirus restrictions took hold.

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‘I’m going nowhere but up’: Winston Peters on populism, politics and the polls

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Veteran politician, who is being aided by Brexiteers Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore, is bullish about New Zealand First’s chances at the election

“When you talk about populism, let me ask you this question,” says Winston Peters, the MP who has at times been in a position to handpick who will lead New Zealand. “In your profession or mine: who wants to be unpopular?”

The eccentric veteran politician – rich-voiced and finely-tailored – has held seats in New Zealand’s parliament since 1979 with only two breaks from his time in office, advancing his minor party on a platform of curbing immigration, benefits for pensioners, and exhortations to “common sense”.

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Two sex scandals in a week: New Zealand faces reckoning over MPs’ behaviour

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Exits of an MP and a minister might signal a new attitude in a nation where politicians’ private lives have traditionally been off-limits

After a New Zealand MP quit and a minister was fired in successive days over allegations of sexual misconduct or inappropriate relationships, New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, was asked by a reporter whether it was “open season” on any member of parliament who had “ever had an affair”.

“I don’t want to get drawn into hypotheticals,” Ardern replied as she faced questions about the sacking of Iain Lees-Galloway, her minister of workplace relations and safety, over his workplace relationship with a former staffer in his office.

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Jacinda Ardern sacks New Zealand minister following his affair with staffer – video

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New Zealand's prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has fired her immigration minister after being told he had engaged in a 12-month-affair with a staffer in his office.

Iain Lees-Galloway's affair took place over a 12-month period and Ardern was concerned that an abuse of power may have taken place. 

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I want to vote in the New Zealand election – but cost and Covid-19 make it harder for expats | Elle Hunt

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The country’s requirement that expats must visit at least once every three years should be reviewed in these changed times

Early last year, in what now seems like another world, I nabbed bargain flights from London to Sydney. My parents were already there, visiting, so my sisters flew from Wellington to join us.

We spent a pleasant two weeks together, with the unspoken understanding that it would be another couple of years before we saw each other again – such was the frequency of visits I’d fallen into since leaving New Zealand in 2015.

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Willpower v kindness: could Judith Collins crush Jacinda Ardern at the New Zealand election? | Grant Duncan for the Conversation

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Two months out from the polls, the new National leader is hoping to come from behind by painting her popular rival as all appearance and little substance

The starting gates in New Zealand’s 19 September election race are finally full. Labour’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern is the bookies’ favourite and the opposition took a long time to settle.

All the same, punters may still want to hedge their bets.

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If anyone can demand New Zealand’s National party pull its socks up, it is Judith Collins | Claire Robinson

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Only once in the past hundred years has a party formed government after changing leader in an election year, but that was Ardern in 2017

According to conventional wisdom, it’s electoral suicide for political parties to change leaders in an (ordinary) election year. But what about in extraordinary election years? And what about changing leaders twice in the midst of the first global pandemic and recession in a hundred years? When the much-needed rule book is written on this, central to its exposition will be whether Judith Collins, the New Zealand National party’s fifth leader in four years, was able to pull off one of the biggest upsets in the country’s electoral history.

Only once in the past hundred years has a party formed a government after changing its leader in an election year, and that was three years ago in 2017. Confronted with his party in opinion poll freefall, then Labour leader Andrew Little stood aside seven weeks from election day to see if his more publicly popular deputy, Jacinda Ardern, would be able to stem the flow of voters leaving it for the Green party. It was an audacious move, and it paid off.

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David Clark’s resignation ‘inevitable’ as Ardern seeks to restore trust

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New Zealand’s handling of coronavirus was besmirched by health minister’s blunders, so a pre-election salvage operation was needed

New Zealanders had been confined to their homes for more than two weeks when photographs emerged of David Clark’s campaign van parked at a mountain-biking track in Dunedin.

His vehicle was the only one there.

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Rugby, scones and old school charm: Todd Muller plots the downfall of Jacinda Ardern

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New Zealand’s new opposition leader has a stiff task against the wildly popular incumbent, but the conservative senses an opening thanks to the Covid crisis

The man who will challenge Jacinda Ardern in the hope of becoming New Zealand’s next prime minister introduced himself to the country in front of a loyal, local crowd in his old rugby clubrooms. There were scones with butter, rugby trophies proudly on display, and on the wall, someone from the club had put up a tino rangatiratanga – or Indigenous Māori sovereignty – flag (it turned out to be upside down, something the rugby club say they were responsible for).

Todd Muller’s launch last Sunday was not flashy or digital; in one sense it was politics of the old school. But for those who listened to the long, nuanced speech, Muller cited both National party prime ministers – from his own, centre-right group – and those from Ardern’s centre-left Labour, as chief among his influences.

Related: Can New Zealand's National party reinvent itself under Todd Muller? | Jennifer Curtin

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Can New Zealand’s National party reinvent itself under Todd Muller? | Jennifer Curtin

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The new opposition leader must win back centrist voters, just four months out from the election

It was never a foregone conclusion, but with three poll results in the last three weeks putting National’s support at around 30%, the chances of Bridges remaining as leader were increasingly slim. By 1pm on 22 May, the parliamentary National party had sealed his, and deputy Paula Bennett’s, fate.

The new leader, Todd Muller, now faces the unenviable task of clawing back the centre right voters who appear, for now, to have deserted National in droves.

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Jacinda Ardern’s global renown is great, but she must do more for women | Jennifer Curtin

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International praise for Covid response and her rebuilding of traditional Labour support has been astute, but PM must address women’s wellbeing

The gendered dimensions of political leadership during the Covid-19 crisis has achieved global proportions, with headlines claiming that women are doing things differently, and with better results. Much of this is assertion, given Vietnam and Georgia, amongst other countries with male leaders, have also seen successful containment. We have also witnessed some pushback against the policy decisions taken by Belgian prime minister Sophie Wilmès.

Nevertheless, the novelty of women political leaders remains newsworthy, and the media’s go-to international “face’” of those women who have managed this crisis exceptionally well is Jacinda Ardern.

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Four-day weeks could be key to New Zealand’s Covid-19 recovery, says Ardern – video

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New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has suggested employers consider a four-day working week and other flexible working options as a way to boost tourism and help employees address persistent work/life balance issues.

Ardern said people had suggested everything from the shorter work week to more public holidays as a means to stimulate the economy and encourage domestic tourism, while the borders remain closed to foreign nationals

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‘It’s about leadership’: Ardern takes 20% pay cut over coronavirus – video

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New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has announced she and her ministers along with public service CEOs will take a 20% pay cut for six months. ‘If there was ever a time to close the gap between different positions, it's now,’ Ardern said during a coronavirus press update. She said the the move was to acknowledge New Zealanders who have lost jobs, taken pay cuts or who were reliant on wage subsidies during the Covid-19 outbreak. ‘And while it in itself won’t shift the government’s overall fiscal position, it is about leadership’, she said. The pay cut will not affect frontline public-sector workers such as nurses, police and health care professionals.


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Elimination: what New Zealand’s coronavirus response can teach the world | Michael Baker and Nick Wilson

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New Zealand’s drive against Covid-19 is showing promise and it is not too late for other countries to follow

Epidemiologists love to evoke the memory of John Snow, who famously advocated removing the handle from the Broad Street pump in London, an action that helped to end a severe outbreak of cholera. In the face of the Covid-19 pandemic we need to take the same kind of decisive action, yet western countries have appeared remarkably slow to do so, despite the advantages of immense scientific knowledge and modern tools of pandemic control.

New Zealand now appears to be the only “western” nation following an articulated elimination strategy with the goal of completely ending transmission of Covid-19 within its borders. The strategy appears to be working, with new case numbers falling. Most cases are now returning travellers, who are safely quarantined at the borders, and the few remaining case clusters in the community are being traced and further spread stamped out. But it is far too soon to claim victory, and the country is remaining under an intense lockdown to support the elimination effort.

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Not much love actually: Jacinda Ardern was right to call out Australia’s ‘corrosive’ policies | Ben Doherty

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The New Zealand prime minister was justified in taking Scott Morrison to task over a policy that is both spurious and damaging

We’ve seen this movie before.

Then, in Love Actually, Hugh Grant played the unlikely prime minister of Britain, standing up to an oleaginous Billy Bob Thornton as president of the US.

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New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern picks up the tongs for Waitangi Day barbecue – video

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New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern takes part in the Waitangi Day dawn service, serving up a barbecue breakfast. The prime minister was among the many to gather at Waitangi before sunrise as part of commemorations on the 180th anniversary of the Treaty of Waitangi’s signing

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This election is do or die for NZ First and the fight could get dirty | Bryce Edwards

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Winston Peters has been a kingmaker for years but faces a National backlash after helping Labour into office

Winston Peters is a colossus of New Zealand politics, and his New Zealand First party is, once again, poised to be the lynchpin in this year’s election campaign. But so much hinges on whether his party makes it over the electoral system’s all-important 5% threshold.

Being the only centre party in parliament has made NZ First incredibly powerful. It can, and does, pivot between the left and right blocs of Labour-Greens and National-Act. Since 1996 when New Zealand adopted the mixed-member proportional electoral system, NZ First has decided the government three times – throwing its lot in with National once and Labour twice.

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New Zealand election: Jacinda Ardern promises stability as she sets poll date

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Vote on 19 September will also see referendums on legalising euthanasia and recreational marijuana

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced her country’s next general election will be held on 19 September, firing the starting pistol on a campaign race lasting more than seven months.

On Tuesday, Ardern said the forthcoming election campaign would be “positive, factual and robust”, and that her party had signed up to Facebook’s advertising transparency tool to counter misinformation.

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Ardern: New Zealand election race should be free of misinformation – video

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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces the next general election will be held on 19 September and promises a transparent campaign free of misinformation. She says Labour has signed up to Facebook's advertising transparency tool, adding: 'New Zealanders deserve freedom from misinformation and some of the negative style of campaigning that we have seen take place overseas in the past.' Ardern says Labour will also have its major policy costings independently verified.

She says Labour has run 'a strong economy with low unemployment and growth rates that others look to with envy, outstripping countries we often compare ourselves to, like Australia and the UK while making critical investments in health and education and reducing child poverty.'

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Jacinda Ardern lets phone call from Scott Morrison go to voicemail – video

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The prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, lets a phone call from her Australian counterpart, Scott Morrison, go to voicemail during a press conference. Ardern was speaking about the idea of cooperating with Australia on an evacuation of citizens from Australia and New Zealand from coronavirus-hit Wuhan, China

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