Jacinda Ardern has announced she is standing down as PM …

Written By: - Date published: 1:08 pm, January 19th, 2023 - 260 comments
Categories: jacinda ardern, labour - Tags:

Jacinda Ardern has just announced she is standing down as Prime Minister from February 7 and will not seek re-election.

Further details will follow.

Update:  Grant Robertson has said that he will not be seeking the leadership.

Jacinda Ardern’s statement on Facebook:

The General Election for 2023 will be held on Saturday the 14th of October.

In setting this date, I have considered the advice of the Electoral Commission, Public Holidays and school holidays, the advance voting periods, and important events and fixtures. I believe this date best accommodates each of these factors.

Consideration of the date over the summer, and the impending election and new political term has also given me time for reflection.

I am entering now my sixth year in office. And for each of those years, I have given my absolute all.

I believe that leading a country is the most privileged job anyone could ever have, but also one of the more challenging. You cannot, and should not do it unless you have a full tank, plus, a bit in reserve for those unexpected challenges.

This summer, I had hoped to find a way to prepare for not just another year, but another term – because that is what this year requires. I have not been able to do that.

And so today, I am announcing that I will not be seeking re-election and that my term as Prime Minister will conclude no later than the 7th of February.

This has been the most fulfilling five and a half years of my life. But it has also had its challenges.

Amongst an agenda focused on housing, child poverty and climate change, we encountered a major biosecurity incursion, a domestic terror event, a major natural disaster, a global pandemic and an economic crisis. The decisions that had to be made have been continual, and they have been weighty.

But I am not leaving because it was hard. Had that been the case I probably would have departed two months into the job!

I am leaving because with such a privileged role, comes responsibility. The responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead, and also, when you are not.

I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It is that simple.

But I absolutely believe and know, there are others around me who do.

We achieved a huge amount in the last five years. And I am so proud of that.

We are in a fundamentally different place on climate change than where we were, with ambitious targets and a plan to achieve them.

We have turned around child poverty statistics and made the most significant increases in welfare and the state housing stock we’ve seen in many decades.

We’ve made it easier to access education and training, improved the pay and conditions of workers, and shifted our settings towards a high wage, high skilled economy.

And we’ve worked hard to make progress on issues around our national identity, and I believe that teaching history in schools and celebrating our own indigenous national holiday will all make a difference for years to come.

And we’ve done that while responding to some of the biggest threats to the health and economic wellbeing of our nation arguably since World War Two.

The team that has done all that, they have been some of the best people I have ever had the privilege of working with, and they are well placed to take us forward as we continue to focus on our economic recovery with one of the strongest economies in the world.

They are also a team who are incredibly well placed to contest the next election. In fact, I am not leaving because I believe we can’t win the election, but because I believe we can and will, and we need a fresh set of shoulders for that challenge.

I know there will be much discussion in the aftermath of this decision as to what the so called “real” reason was. I can tell you, that what I am sharing today is it.

The only interesting angle you will find is that after going on six years of some big challenges, that I am human. Politicians are human. We give all that we can, for as long as we can, and then it’s time.

And for me, it’s time.

I intend to remain the Member for Mt Albert through till April. This will give me a bit of time in the electorate before I depart, and also spare them and the country a by-election.

Beyond that, I have no plan. No next steps. All I know is that whatever I do, I will try and find ways to keep working for New Zealand and that I am looking forward to spending time with my family again – arguably, they are the ones that have sacrificed the most out of all of us.

And so to Neve, mum is looking forward to being there when you start school this year.

And to Clarke, let’s finally get married.

As for the next Labour Leader. The caucus has seven days to ascertain whether one individual holds more than 2/3rds of the caucus support.

Caucus has today agreed that a vote will occur in three days’ time on Sunday the 22nd of January. If a leader is successfully elected, I will issue my resignation soon after to the Governor General, and a new Prime Minister will be sworn in.

If no one is able to garner this level of support within caucus, the leadership contest will go to the wider membership.

My opportunity to thank the many people I need to, will likely come in April when I depart Parliament, 15 years after having been sworn in.

Till then, I see my role to help the Labour Party, who I consider my family, navigate this next phase. And then, to leave the next colleague who takes on this role, all the space they need to make their mark.

For my part, I want to finish with a simple thank you to New Zealanders for giving me this opportunity to serve, and to take on what has and will always be the greatest role in my life.

I hope in return I leave behind a belief that you can be kind, but strong. Empathetic, but decisive. Optimistic, but focused.

That you can be your own kind of leader – one that knows when it’s time to go.”

260 comments on “Jacinda Ardern has announced she is standing down as PM … ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Sanctuary 1
    19 January 2023 at 1:12 pm

    All the super connected super savvy political correspondents will be furious that they didn't know.

    • Tiger Mountain 1.1
      19 January 2023 at 1:16 pm

      Heh, true, sod the pundits I say!

      The dirty filthy dark New Zealanders that assisted her too soon exit have a lot to answer for, the awful misogyny and corrosive abuse. Good on her for trying to get a life of some sort back.

      • Shanreagh 1.1.1
        19 January 2023 at 2:06 pm

        I agree the level of misogyny has been shattering over the time she has been PM, not to mention the trolling, conspiracy theories and untruths she has had to cope with from 'nutters' during the Covid times.

        Hope she has a good time ahead and that she is not lost to politics for ever.

        • JohnO 1.1.1.1
          19 January 2023 at 2:19 pm

          But it's OK to criticise Luxon for being an old white guy though, right?

          • observer 1.1.1.1.1
            19 January 2023 at 2:23 pm

            Definitely not OK to criticise Luxon for being Hitler, Stalin, a dictator, a murderer and demand that he be executed.

            Have you been asleep for 5 years?

          • Shanreagh 1.1.1.1.2
            19 January 2023 at 2:41 pm

            I don't think I have criticised Luxon in that way. I have and do have concerns about his lack of knowledge of those on struggle street and what they have to go through to exist, and also the impact of the Evangelical church he belongs to.

            We can see the pitfalls of Right wing conservatism plus church-going of the type he belongs to, in the US.

    • infused 1.2
      19 January 2023 at 2:41 pm

      Wasn't the rumor started end of last year? I think maybe they heard and Jacinda delayed it? Sounds more likely.

      • Louis 1.2.1
        19 January 2023 at 8:24 pm

        Nope, not more likely. Rumours of Jacinda resigning have been swirling around for years, even prior to the 2020 election.

    • Johnr 1.3
      19 January 2023 at 4:06 pm

      I'm really torn about this.

      I'm so sorry that nz has lost an incredible leader .

      But. I'm so glad for her that she is going to look after herself.

      Let's face it, NZ PM particularly for a woman has to be one of the nastiest jobs in the world.

      You'd have to be a pretty twisted individual ( and I know a few ) to not wish her contentedness.

    • RedLogix 1.4
      19 January 2023 at 8:19 pm

      The historic parallels between Ardern and Lange are stark; both came to power as charismatic and effective leaders – both undone by radical agendas in their caucus.

      It would not surprise me if Ardern also resigns if the polls do not improve early in the New Year.

      https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-07-12-2022/#comment-1924852

  2. Sanctuary 2
    19 January 2023 at 1:13 pm

    Goodness me though she looks tired and worn out at this press conference.

    Well, she saved thousands with her decisiveness over covid. She can sleep easy tonight.

    The Queen is gone, long live Prime Minster Michael Wood!

    • heather grimwood 2.1
      19 January 2023 at 2:03 pm

      To Sanctuary at 2 :

      Jacinda certainly deserves to sleep easy, and be freed from the ever-present need for bodyguards, a situation I've not ever seen alluded to.

    • JohnO 2.2
      19 January 2023 at 2:20 pm

      I'm thinking it could be the other Wood, Megan.

    • Obtrectator 2.3
      19 January 2023 at 3:52 pm

      "Don't you think she's looking tired?" – The Ninth Doctor

  3. tsmithfield 3
    19 January 2023 at 1:15 pm

    Despite my political differences I wish her well. Politics is a hard game, and she has a young family I am sure she would like to invest into. So I can't blame her.

    For what it is worth, I would like to see Chris Hipkins for leader. I really rate him as a politician. Though, that might not be the PC choice with him being a middle-aged, white, straight male.

    • Jimmy 3.1
      19 January 2023 at 1:46 pm

      Well said. I don't agree with many of her policies, but good on her for getting out while she is still on top. A huge weight lifted off her shoulders. I too think Hipkins would be a good leader.

    • Craig H 3.2
      19 January 2023 at 2:50 pm

      Hipkins is an obvious front-runner and I agree with you that he would do a good job.

  4. Muttonbird 4
    19 January 2023 at 1:18 pm

    Sad day for NZ, but a good day for her and her family. Godspeed, Jacinda!

    Who will be the next PM?

    • Jimmy 4.1
      19 January 2023 at 1:23 pm

      Hipkins?

    • Sanctuary 4.2
      19 January 2023 at 1:24 pm

      I'd go for Michael Wood or Chippy, but I think the latter was also worn down a bit by covid.

      • Muttonbird 4.2.1
        19 January 2023 at 1:30 pm

        Yeah, Wood or Hipkins, or Prime Minister Kiri Allan?

        • Sanctuary 4.2.1.1
          19 January 2023 at 1:32 pm

          I think Wood is best placed to take the fight to the Nats, he uses the right language and to me looks to have the goods.

      • bwaghorn 4.2.2
        19 January 2023 at 1:39 pm

        The only one with any charisma is McNulty, probably hasn't been in the game long enough, and I'd Raye labours change as next to zero next election now.

      • Anne 4.2.3
        19 January 2023 at 1:59 pm

        Micheal Wood certainly has what it takes but at the moment I'm upset for Jacinda. The level of viciousness and pure hatred she has had to cope with has been beyond anything we have seen in NZ before.

        I wish her all the very best and hope she will be able to serve this country and indeed beyond at a very high level in the future.

        • PsyclingLeft.Always 4.2.3.1
          19 January 2023 at 2:06 pm

          Anne…I am feeling that absolutely. The so nasty and toxic creeps will be aglow. But thinking of the weight off her now, is literally the bright part of this extremely sad news.

        • newsense 4.2.3.2
          19 January 2023 at 5:11 pm

          There’s a very nice photo somewhere of them at Albert Park in the long long ago of the world. That’d make a good transition photo!

      • Nic the NZer 4.2.4
        19 January 2023 at 5:23 pm

        At the risk of scalp burn, will Chris Luxon throw his hat in the ring for PM. Is this even a legal outcome where the PM is not a member of the government?

        If the country goes through 6 months of trial period while he can't really do much, and gets to decide on 3 years when he will lead a majority in return, this could be a very good deal.

        Might also be a way to break the cycle of switching onto an inexperienced regime and then discovering what they actually stand for, if the opposition are given part responsibility before the election.

    • Jimmy 4.3
      19 January 2023 at 4:28 pm

      Perhaps we will all be surprised, and Kelvin Davis as deputy will take the leadership?

  5. Lukas 5
    19 January 2023 at 1:20 pm

    The sun shine feels much brighter and warmer today.

    • Muttonbird 5.1
      19 January 2023 at 1:28 pm

      Agree, and you can be sure it feels that way for JA and her family.

      Imagine being released from the poison right wing politics would have thrown at her this year.

    • Patricia Bremner 5.2
      19 January 2023 at 2:02 pm

      Lucas leave here and have a good life without that need to infer your feelings.

    • Anne 5.3
      19 January 2023 at 5:33 pm

      Goodness me Lukas there is a scientific explanation for that or are you also a dumb denier? There's an anti-cyclone sitting over NZ and the sun is shining bright and hot. (sarc)

  6. SPC 6
    19 January 2023 at 1:22 pm

    Basically saying she intended to but has not re-charged well enough during her break to return to the job.

    Someone could have said make me acting PM to March and come back then … (GR is not seeking the leadership).

    Maybe it's more than workplace stress, but having had enough of political society in the post pandemic world …

    • Craig H 6.1
      19 January 2023 at 3:15 pm

      No doubt she isn't the only politician (or worker…) who came back from the holidays, took a look at the job, and said 'nah'. Don't blame her at all, has been a tough run generally, and a pretty thankless latter half of 2021 and 2022 particularly.

  7. Patricia Bremner 7
    19 January 2023 at 1:22 pm

    Since the Prime Minister had covid she has looked tired, and I hope she gets her own life back and finds joy again.

    • Hunter Thompson II 7.1
      19 January 2023 at 1:40 pm

      Nothing Gold Can Stay

      Nature’s first green is gold,

      Her hardest hue to hold.

      Her early leaf’s a flower;

      But only so an hour.

      Then leaf subsides to leaf.

      So Eden sank to grief,

      So dawn goes down to day.

      Nothing gold can stay.

      [Robert Frost]

  8. Peter 8
    19 January 2023 at 1:24 pm

    Ardern will no longer be PM but the people like Liz Gunn will still be the same.

    In some senses that is the trade off. Gunn and Brian Tamaki being better for the country? Considerable numbers clearly see it like that.

  9. DB Brown 9
    19 January 2023 at 1:28 pm

    Gutted. The dregs in her tea had more insight than most politicians.

    • PsyclingLeft.Always 9.1
      19 January 2023 at 1:54 pm

      Fucking aye. Through it all (would have be nightmares for an average person ! ) she mostly kept upbeat. A true Leader. Must have been huge weight on. I so wish her and family all the Best.

    • weka 9.2
      19 January 2023 at 2:28 pm

      same. Very happy for her, because it's such a brutal job and she's had it harder than most. But very sad for the rest of us.

  10. mickysavage 10
    19 January 2023 at 1:28 pm

    Jacinda's basic and perhaps only weakness is that she is a gentle compassionate soul and all of the hate and attacks clearly got to her. We need to do politics better than this.

    • Gosman 10.1
      19 January 2023 at 1:38 pm

      What do you mean by that? I can point to numerous people here who bad mouth and insult various politicians on the right in the comments (and sometimes even a post or two) and I see little effort from you to pull them up on it. Do you simply want people to treat the politicians you like and agree with much better?

      • SPC 10.1.1
        19 January 2023 at 1:42 pm

        You don't get out much on social media do you. Most of the stuff on here and even Kiwblog is tame compared to what is on Twitter and Facebook (and the right wing social media alternatives are worse).

        • Gosman 10.1.1.1
          19 January 2023 at 1:51 pm

          I beg to differ. I can point to numerous comments here denigrating and dehumanising politicians on the right.

          • SPC 10.1.1.1.1
            19 January 2023 at 1:53 pm

            Your time online has been very sheltered.

            • Siobhan 10.1.1.1.1.1
              19 January 2023 at 3:21 pm

              "Sheltered?"..on The Standard..Yeah right!!

              • SPC …
                19 January 2023 at 3:36 pm

                The difference between here and Kiwiblog is by degree (and that is since their name or moderation policy). It is yet more to some sectors of Facebook and Twitter and to the alternative right social media, a chasm (and its not the opinion, its the inhumanity).

          • Stuart Munro 10.1.1.1.2
            19 January 2023 at 3:04 pm

            Politicians on the right are never of Jacinda's quality. Also, they get up to a lot of mischief, like Brownlee's corruption around the Chch rebuild.

            He was not dehumanized by critique of these facts – he dehumanized himself.

            • Gosman 10.1.1.1.2.1
              19 January 2023 at 3:10 pm

              That is the crux of the matter. Your political bias allows you to justify the belittlement and denigration of politicians you don't agree with or dislike because of the political views they hold. You see no issue with engaging in that sort of ugly political discourse in that situation. The exact same logic can be used by people who have the opposing political views to yours around political figures you do like and respect. You essentially become a hypocrite as soon as you demand they stop abusing the ones you do favour.

              • MickeyBoyle …
                19 January 2023 at 3:12 pm

                Correct.

              • Jimmy …
                19 January 2023 at 3:33 pm

                Well said.

              • SPC …
                19 January 2023 at 3:42 pm

                There are degrees of ugly discourse.

                Have you considered going to the Kiwblog site and noting the comments on the issue take up this cause there?

              • Stuart Munro …
                19 January 2023 at 4:08 pm

                Yeah nah.

                Facts matter – but since they rarely serve your dishonest narratives, you are at pains to elide them.

                Brownlee's administration of the rebuild was massively corrupt – some of his appointees were tried for that corruption, and rebuild activities remain a scandal within the building industry. One need not go far in the South Island to find testimony about it.

                But you are so determined to exculpate your crook that you will defend their criminality because you too mean to benefit from it. It is a shameful thing, to be at bottom, so utterly compromised – but being that, you cannot comprehend it.

                • JeremyB …
                  19 January 2023 at 4:25 pm

                  Hear hear

                • Gosman …
                  19 January 2023 at 6:12 pm

                  It was so corrupt that the current Labour government chose to ignore it and has not done anything to even bring it to people's attention let alone ensure justice is done. That would suggest the current government is complicit in this corruption. Do you accept that?

                  • Stuart Munro …
                    19 January 2023 at 8:33 pm

                    Yes – although to a reduced degree – not being the perpetrators.

                    There is a lot of collusion between the parties – the slave ships being a prime example. Nevertheless, the party led by Goodfellow took the lead in that invidious practice. Labour collaborators like Nash merely became accomplices after the fact.

                    • Gosman …
                      20 January 2023 at 9:53 am

                      Collusion with corruption makes you corrupt. Following your logic ALL political parties and politicians in Parliament (and NZ First outside) are corrupt.

                  • Stuart Munro …
                    21 January 2023 at 3:37 pm

                    Thank you for highlighting the ugly side of the left wing

                    You're welcome – we know the criminal side of the RW view the concept of justice with horror and outrage.

              • weka …
                19 January 2023 at 5:20 pm

                whereas in the absence of examples you look like someone calling political critique abuse.

                • Gosman …
                  19 January 2023 at 6:58 pm

                  The comment thread on this post from you is full of the denigration of Key.

                  .https://thestandard.org.nz/moving-on-after-fjk/

                  To give you some examples:

                  Comment 1

                  "A passage from HST’s obituary of Richard Nixon seems apt:

                  …the record will show that I kicked him repeatedly long before he went down. I beat him like a mad dog with mange every time I got a chance, and I am proud of it. He was scum.
                  "

                  Comment 6
                  "…John Key sold NZ out to the US here and the Chinese there, and in deal after deal with dodgy corporations. As far as I am concerned, it was treason and he should be accordingly held to account."

                  Comment 6.1
                  "Space Monkey…. Fjk is such a slippery fucka, but it will indeed be a great day if he gets nailed for all the misery he caused."

                  Comment 7.1

                  "…Of course his true lizard nature was only revealed years later when all those high Obama-like dreams were shattered amidst earthquakes, financial crises, and massive dislocation of NZ citizens in the name of property prices. (Not to mention #dirtypolitics and endless lies and #momentoftruth)"

                  Comment 11

                  " I saw through him right from the start.

                  My wife always said he had dead eyes and she was right as there was nothing there at all.

                  Those kiwis who have never had an original idea in their lives and believe in celebrity star status as their guiding light and think poverty is the name of a reality tv show voted for this man ” that nice Mr Key ”

                  And a lot got wealthy and credit him for lifting them into the monied class and keeping them there.

                  But most of his support came from the ” hear no evil , speak no evil and see no evil kiwi who bought into the marketing campaign and never questioned his motives and agenda.

                  His time in office was one of the biggest political con jobs ever seen in this country and i really believe he got away scot free and with a knighthood to boot and if the media had not been so compromised it would have uncovered the true extent of his crimes that remain hidden from scrutiny."

                  Comment 11.2
                  "I also saw right through him. My experience living a wartime childhood in the East End he is a typical East End bombsite spiv we were so aware of. As the saying goes pinch your watch at one end of the market and sell it back to you at the other end. Very wary of the prick and trust him no further than the length of his fucking nose. Being brought up in that environment one get very wary of this type of prick. That is why I always refer to him as The Fucking Spiv."

                  All very ugly. That last one even made reference to the size of his nose and supposed dodgy business practices which is very close to being anti-semitic.

      • adam 10.1.2
        19 January 2023 at 7:51 pm

        Classy Gossy as always.

        Could I suggest you need reminding to look in your own nest of vipers before you comment here. Been to kiwiblog or the cesspit that is what ever that nasty piece of whaleshit is doing these days? 100 times more vial than anything posted here against the Tories.

    • JohnO 10.2
      19 January 2023 at 2:23 pm

      Did someone get praised for writing a song about raping her child? Oh, that was about John Key. That's OK then.

  11. Maurice 11
    19 January 2023 at 1:33 pm

    A dangerous time for us all – who will seize control of the ruling party till the election on October 14th?

    So much back on the table now.

    • Peter 11.1
      19 January 2023 at 1:36 pm

      How is it any more a 'dangerous' time for us than previously? I do think the 'seizing control' bit is straight out of newspaper headline writing school.

      • Maurice 11.1.1
        19 January 2023 at 1:41 pm

        Just imagining the headlines …

        Where will we get out kindness now?

        • Nic the NZer 11.1.1.1
          19 January 2023 at 2:05 pm

          "Where will we get out kindness now?"

          This is very likely to be the exact stuff headline, as they no longer appear to have any editors on staff.

        • Mac1 11.1.1.2
          19 January 2023 at 2:09 pm

          Is this the same Maurice who speaks of the pompatus of love?

    • Nic the NZer 11.2
      19 January 2023 at 2:04 pm

      Labour should offer the PM role to Chris Luxon. Its just a few months and NZ would welcome the flexibility to exercise an extended 90-day trial period (incidentally National likely to reinstate this policy).

      • Louis 11.2.1
        19 January 2023 at 10:16 pm

        No way. Not democratic, the people will decide on October 14th.

        • Nic the NZer 11.2.1.1
          19 January 2023 at 11:44 pm

          Its important to realise, opposition politicians can look appealing because they have zero track record. I think Chris will last about 90 days as PM before everybody has had more than enough. If that happened before the election even better.

          • Louis 11.2.1.1.1
            21 January 2023 at 3:45 am

            National have history, they have a track record and imo not a particularly good one either. Chris? Labour haven't elected the new leader and PM yet and that sounds more like wishful thinking on your part.

  12. Corey Humm 12
    19 January 2023 at 1:34 pm

    Sad I thought she'd stick it out. She is incredibly unbelievably unpopular now. National winning is a certainty now. An economically hard right ruthenasia 2.0 govt awaits us that will cripple the poor and the working class.

    She had the potential to really change new Zealand for the better instead she focused on tweaks, spin, identity politics and upper middle class virtue signaling.

    She won't be remembered for any major legislation reforms, major policy achievements, or anything that made people's lives better. In this aspect she's been a total an utter failure.

    She will be remembered for being the first pm in NZ to give birth in office, the first pm to win an absolute majority under mmp, the first pm to not win the popular vote but govern, COVID and march 15.

    She'll also be remembered for pissing away unprecedented popular support on things like three waters, cogovt, hate speech reforms, vax mandates (I agreed with at the time but it cost us 5-6% if votes) , for leading an extremely untransparent administration that was obsessed with micromanaging citizens lives instead of making citizens lives better and for doing next to nothing and outright denying a cost of living crisis and then doing next to nothing on the issue for a year.

    She is is my generations David Lange. A total disappointment.

    She was a just another member of the professional managerial class who got everyone's hopes up and did nothing and cowardly ran off when she wasn't adored and fetted.

    Now us peasents have to endure 9 years of a hard right govt that wants to cut benefits, cut wages, wants untapped immigration.

    Thanks for nothing labour.

    Not one member of that caucus is going to improve labours polling and y’all know it.

    It’s over. Barton down the hatches

    • Sanctuary 12.1
      19 January 2023 at 1:36 pm

      Give it a rest chum, or even better go back to the Daily Blog and regurgitate Bradbury's populist bullshit talking points over there.

      • Shanreagh 12.1.1
        19 January 2023 at 2:11 pm

        OTT, leave it alone Corey Humm…..if you speak for the younger people…. we have little to look forward to. Discernment being down on your list to my way of reading.

      • MickeyBoyle 12.1.2
        19 January 2023 at 3:13 pm

        Corey is allowed his views, I share many of them.

        Don't be so hateful.

        • roblogic 12.1.2.1
          19 January 2023 at 3:40 pm

          Probably better to reflect on the many positives of Jacinda's leadership rather than nitpick on places where the socialist dream was not fully realised.

          Gratitude is better for your mental health.

          Don't be like the conspiracy FUD nuts.

      • mosa 12.1.3
        19 January 2023 at 6:46 pm

        ” Give it a rest chum, or even better go back to the Daily Blog and regurgitate Bradbury's populist bullshit talking points over there ”

        Oh Sanctuary you really have become a nasty standardnista.

        But you do a have a sneak peek at the Daily Blog just to remind you of what real left wing policy is all about.

        You my friend are the reason LINO is dying. Pretending to be something you are not.

      • Louis 12.1.4
        19 January 2023 at 10:17 pm

        yes Sanctuary

    • PsyclingLeft.Always 12.2
      19 January 2023 at 1:49 pm

      Are you/were you really a Labour supporter? IMO no fucking way. Do not need you or your sourness.

    • DB Brown 12.3
      19 January 2023 at 1:58 pm

      Things have been improving under Labour on a number of measures, and as a 'poor' person it has been significantly easier to get by for myself and many I know.

      It's not just increases to workers wages and various benefits but there's much to be said for not being treated as second class citizens aka "bottom feeders". The essential worker was beginning to be recognised. The climate was getting easier for many to simply breathe in.

      But they told us the sky was falling, a culture war waging, Maori's taking over, agendas and agencies! Yadda yadda bullshit bullshit BULLSHIT!

      Should National retake the reins the contrast for how people are treated will become apparent for many, even if you can't see it.

      Just look at what National and Act have to say with regards to and truth and it may dawn just how much disrespect they have for voters.

    • observer 12.4
      19 January 2023 at 2:12 pm

      Quote:

      She is incredibly unbelievably unpopular now

      It's always helpful when commenters start with fact-free nonsense like this, because it indicates their departure from reality and saves us having to bother with the rest of the rant.

      There is no evidence whatsoever for your claim (which is why you didn't offer any). Check polling history. Other PMs (e.g. Bolger, Shipley, Clark) lost their place as preferred PM. Not Ardern.

      • Corey Humm 12.4.1
        19 January 2023 at 2:45 pm

        In just two years her popularity has fallen from regularly in the 50s and occasionally in the 60s to being 30s and occasionally in the 20s.

        That is a near historic if not historic drop in popularity. Labours polling since April has been horrifying to watch and the govt just smugly blocked their ears and carried on doing what was losing support and now we are here.

        A third of the country prefer Ardern, a third disapprove of her, a third don't know but many of the people like myself whod say they'd prefer Ardern don't even like Ardern we just hate national.

        She was not a great leader. She could have been a great leader but she has spent the last two years checked out and allowed the right to controll the narrative by refusing to change course or do a govt reset.

        She could have reset the agenda and passed a few small scale achievements this year and fought like hell to win a third term or at least have labour be a strong opposition, instead of staying and fighting she cuts and runs.

        Im upset about it. She could have been a great leader, instead, she's been an idea of a leader.

        One can't help but think this decision may have been influenced by her promise to cut down and shrink labours agenda over the summer and maybe she experienced harsh push back from the most powerful faction in the party and she decided screw it I'm out.

        Whatever the reason, she has become extremely divisive, has lost historic levels of support has very few legislative achievements and not much of a legacy beyond crisis management.

        National and act are going to wreak havock on poor people, not that labour cares about us.

        Luckily I'm pretty young and I can skip country but my parents and family members and friends who can't, heartbreaking.

        • lprent 12.4.1.1
          19 January 2023 at 3:32 pm

          Trends in polling are of more interest than individual polls.

          This is the trend for preferred prime minister polls for over teh last two years from wikipedia

          Her polling is in the low to mid 30s at present. She had very high ratings during the pandemic response. But that pretty much always happens when there is a crisis. Look at John Key after the 2011 earthquakes in ChCh. He got a few preferred PM polls at 70+%.

          If you look at the preferred PM polls for 2017-2020 you'll see that she started at about 38% after the 2017 election, slightly above where she is now, and maxed at about 45% before the pandemic. So effectively she is

          But I'd hardly say that she is unpopular in that range. It is only slightdown on what she go when she became PM.

          I'd say that you are simply just ignorant about politics and the preferred PM polling.

          • mosa 12.4.1.1.1
            19 January 2023 at 6:58 pm

            " I'd say that you are simply just ignorant about politics and the preferred PM polling. "

            In your considered opinion !

            It must be great to be so arrogant Mr Prent.

            • lprent 12.4.1.1.1.1
              19 January 2023 at 7:34 pm

              In your considered opinion !

              Of course. I have one, have considered it, and can actually write an argument to back up my opinion. Perhaps you should observe others and see if you are capable of doing anything other than being a snarky fool?

              It must be great to be so arrogant…

              Not really, it is a lot of work to make sure that you have a considered opinion, the knowledge to find the facts to back it, and done enough continuous self-education to provide a framework to be able to express it. But this is all just hobby side-interests.

              If you want to see me being arrogant, you really need to see me operating in my actual areas of work rather than these hobby areas. Pushing code or systems into working takes a lot of creativity, sheer bloody minded persistence and an enormous arrogance to push projects through. I don't waste it on trivia like you.

              But clearly I'm wasting my time explaining that as you have obviously only ever tried to be a fool.

              It shows.

              /snarky

              • mosa …
                19 January 2023 at 8:02 pm

                " But clearly I'm wasting my time explaining that as you have obviously only ever tried to be a fool.

                That diatribe just proves my earlier point.

                Lyn go and have a look in the mirror and ask yourself where all this negativity comes from. You won’t like what you see.

                Arrogant and self serving and and plain for all to see.

                I guess we are all entitled to your opinion.

                • newsense …
                  19 January 2023 at 9:04 pm

                  There’s that scene in My Cousin Vinny about a counter argument. Ya got one? Cos if you don’t, shush, ya boring.

                  It seems only fair to note the popularity polling trend following party vote trends quite closely, but also the number of commentators who were vaulting her ability to communicate to the electorate as a major strength Labour was looking forward to in a campaign. Very few were expecting or calling for this.

        • Patricia Bremner 12.4.1.2
          19 January 2023 at 7:09 pm

          Corey.. Australia?

          Rentals are scarce, jobs have 60 applicants, Medicare and Bulk billing is ending, so a Doctor visit $75. Medicines on top… anything up to $70. Veggies dear because of floods, and they don't yet help Kiwis. Frying pan to Fire.

          Politics is the art of the possible." Events dear boy, events". Things that can’t be planned for.

    • Shanreagh 12.5
      19 January 2023 at 2:54 pm

      This is the type of comment that illustrates to me how we have degenerated in NZ. There is almost personal hatred.

      A PM is a PM, unless we know them personally then hate has no place and this seems to be what has happened over the last few years. There is hate filled and OTT messages over social media, rants here, stupid comments in the press.

      If ever there was a time when we should be cultivating a return to a modicum of stiff upper lip it is in NZ now and during the run-up to the election.

      We have been infected/infested by conspiracy theorists not only in their theories but in the way they put their messages across and I count the placard waving tractor riding Groundswell crowd as a group of CT-ers along with the rest of them.

      If we operate with hate-filled and OTT messages all the time how do we express concern when we have something really outrageous to deal with…do we find a gun and shoot someone?

      That is why I personally am disappointed in Corey Humm's comments. From being a thoughtful and provocative writer they seem to have joined the 'let's put the boot in ungracious crowd'.

    • weka 12.6
      19 January 2023 at 6:08 pm

      National winning is a certainty now.

      That's what people were saying in the winter of 2017. They were wrong.

      One of the best ways to lose a tight election is for lefties to push the idea that the left can't win. People won't bother voting.

  13. Anker 13
    19 January 2023 at 1:37 pm

    I wish Jacinda and her family all the very best

  14. Gosman 14
    19 January 2023 at 1:38 pm

    She was probably the best communicator in the role as PM since David Lange. I remember discussing politics on the 2014 election night with two women in their 30's who voted National. They stated that if she was leader of the Labour party they would vote for the party. It was at that moment I realised how much of an asset she was for the party. She will be sorely missed by Labour. She was in the better half of NZ PM's post WWII.

    • newsense 14.1
      19 January 2023 at 2:07 pm

      As well, and this applies just as much to those who think of Labour as old and blokey- not that many but a few!- it wasn’t an idea of Labour they were voting for.

      It was an idea of New Zealand with this bright, energetic leader who believed in us. That’s not guna be this election campaign!

      Though someone did say Kiri Allan and damn!

    • Stuart Munro 14.2
      19 January 2023 at 10:16 pm

      Meh – probably the best since Savage or Nash – but then most NZ PMs have been very ordinary indeed. Savage was the last to have his picture on the wall in many houses, no contenders for that role since.

      Lange was a fool – tolerated Douglas, and so vain he fell for his press secretary. The average is so lousy that Muldoon was better than most – and he had the soul of a dictator and a sketchy 3rd hand knowledge of the Meiji reformation.

  15. Guy Smiley 15
    19 January 2023 at 1:40 pm

    Chris Hipkins should be new Labour leader.

  16. SPC 16
    19 January 2023 at 1:50 pm

    She resigns from parliament in April, late enough to avoid the need for a by-election.

  17. MickeyBoyle 17
    19 January 2023 at 1:54 pm

    So we can take a CGT to the election now right?

    I won't miss PM Ardern, I appreciate the sacrifice she has made but I personally believe she has been a disaster for the left and the Labour movement as a whole.

    • ianmac 17.1
      19 January 2023 at 2:17 pm

      ..but MikeyBoyle an outstanding leader in catastrophic era. So crawl back into your swamp you nasty little worm.

      • MickeyBoyle 17.1.1
        19 January 2023 at 3:22 pm

        Settle down Ian, don't take things so personally.

        She was a leader of a political party not some deity.

      • weka 17.1.2
        19 January 2023 at 5:28 pm

        people are feeling a lot today, but please don't resort to personal attacks. You are better than that.

  18. Tiger Mountain 18
    19 January 2023 at 1:57 pm

    Mr Wood PM, Kiri for Dep. Time to repudiate Rogernomics NZ Labour!

    The dark, ugly New Zealanders assisted one of this country’s best ever Prime Ministers to leave early.

    • Patricia Bremner 18.1
      19 January 2023 at 2:13 pm

      I agree Tiger Mountainyes

    • Bearded Git 18.2
      19 January 2023 at 9:51 pm

      Agreed Tiger. That is a good summation.

      I expect rubbish from Gosman but Corey Humm has out-rubbished him many times over in the comments above.

      Michael Wood is clever and eloquent….he will out-debate Luxon. Give him the job.

  19. Stephen D 19
    19 January 2023 at 2:02 pm

    I’m in tears.

    • Peter 19.1
      19 January 2023 at 2:18 pm

      We all should be – for what we have become. Ms Ardern famously said, "This is not who we are."

      Who we are is nasty, short-sighted, selfish, dumb.

      • Mac1 19.1.1
        19 January 2023 at 3:00 pm

        And today this from Jacinda Ardern who leaves these very fine words.

        "For my part, I want to finish with a simple thank you to New Zealanders for giving me this opportunity to serve, and to take on what has and will always be the greatest role in my life.

        I hope in return I leave behind a belief that you can be kind, but strong. Empathetic, but decisive. Optimistic, but focused.

        That you can be your own kind of leader – one that knows when it’s time to go."

  20. Muttonbird 20
    19 January 2023 at 2:12 pm

    Prime Minister Nanaia Mahuta would really set the diversity cat amongst the white supremacist pigeons.

  21. ianmac 21
    19 January 2023 at 2:14 pm

    If Jacinda had been a callous mean person she would have been unaffected by the meanness spite hate. It is so sad and a loss for we the people.

    Hope she recovers and has love and happiness in her family future.

  22. Tony Veitch 22
    19 January 2023 at 2:16 pm

    Long term, probably a tragedy for NZ – but right for Jacinda and her family.

    All the very best Jacinda, from one of middle New Zealand.

  23. observer 23
    19 January 2023 at 2:19 pm

    Thank you, Jacinda. People can and will debate policy decisions (as we should in a democracy) but only the terminally deranged would doubt your commitment to the job, and your personal integrity.

    Your true value will only be truly understood if Luxon becomes PM and the stark contrast is laid bare. Let's hope that it is never understood.

    Now pour yourself a good drink and enjoy life, you've earned it.

  24. r0b 24
    19 January 2023 at 2:33 pm

    Thank you Jacinda Ardern.

  25. newsense 25
    19 January 2023 at 2:35 pm

    Not perfect, but she was ours.
    (thanks Tim Minchin)

    She lead so gracefully and gave us her time

    Not perfect, but she tried

    to bring together disparate tribes to align

    Not perfect, but she was kind

  26. DB Brown 26
    19 January 2023 at 2:59 pm

    Mods: Feel free to delete this/the above now that it's in the main body of the post.

  27. tsmithfield 27
    19 January 2023 at 3:16 pm

    I was quite surprised that the election date is as early as it is. Most commentators I had heard were picking November some time.

    • lprent 27.1
      19 January 2023 at 3:46 pm

      It is usually around late September / October / early November. The pick is partially political (eg 2002 with the disintegration of the Alliance, 2022 with earthquake issues) , but more often is influenced by holidays, events, and expectations of weather.

      These are the MMP election dates. We haven't had a November election since 2011. Your commentators may be a little out of date 🙂

      45th 1996 12 Oct
      46th 1999 27 Nov
      47th 2002 27 Jul
      48th 2005 17 Sep
      49th 2008 8 Nov
      50th 2011 26 Nov
      51st 2014 20 Sep
      52nd 2017 23 Sep
      53rd 2020 17 Oct

      Hopefully for your sake, you have other more accurate ones to read.

      • tsmithfield 27.1.1
        19 January 2023 at 4:54 pm

        I think the thinking was that the government would want as much time as possible to pick up in the polls, and therefore leave it as late as possible.

        But maybe they think that the longer they leave it, the more support they will lose, so might as well go for an earlier date.

        • SPC 27.1.1.1
          19 January 2023 at 5:07 pm

          The quarter-finals of the World Cup are played on the weekend Oct14-15 (northern time). One can stay up after the election count and watch a game in the early hours etc.

        • lprent 27.1.1.2
          19 January 2023 at 5:57 pm

          I think that last arguably happened was in 1999. Didn’t work.

          Offhand I can’t think of an occassion in NZ where having a late or early election without very good obvious reason has helped the party doing it. The Alliance falling apart or a earthquake disrupting everything from the census to being able to locate voters were clearly good enough reasons.

      • mosa 27.1.2
        19 January 2023 at 7:12 pm

        Great analysis but let down with the comment at the end.

        • mpledger 27.1.2.1
          19 January 2023 at 10:24 pm

          Why? The commentators were totally inaccurate in both prediction from current events and based on history. We should all hope that Gosman can find more reliable people to give him their opinions.

  28. Mac1 28
    19 January 2023 at 3:19 pm

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/482731/jacinda-ardern-s-defining-legacy-serving-new-zealand-during-a-crisis?

    This is a good and well written response from media to today's announcement.

    I'd be happy enough with such a summation of my term as a PM.

    She had the wisdom to accept her colleague's promotion to party leader and then to PM.

    She had the wisdom and the strength to know when to leave.

    I feel a sense of honour to have been served by such a leader in very difficult times.

    I hope she can be blessed with the legacy she asked for from us Kiwis- "that you can be kind, but strong. Empathetic, but decisive. Optimistic, but focused."

  29. Craig H 29
    19 January 2023 at 3:22 pm

    I hope the next government is led by Labour, but the last midterm PM to win the next election was Peter Fraser (source) which is a bit of a harbinger of doom.

    • mpledger 29.1
      19 January 2023 at 10:25 pm

      Surely, it was Jacinda herself.

      • Craig H 29.1.1
        20 January 2023 at 12:22 pm

        Jacinda was the Labour leader on election day, albeit came into that position late in the process. Fraser was the last PM to become PM during the term (after Savage passed away) and win the next election.

  30. The Digger 30
    19 January 2023 at 3:23 pm

    My guess is that Ardern was told since her leadership was the only way the current mob had a show of retaining power that she needed to resign otherwise no UN or NGO gig for her. The forces of darkness hate that NZ has not joined in the China is totalitarian dictatorship sledging match and USuk demands that there be a change in government. Despite crawling up China's fundamental last time, this time around Luxon & co will leap on the let's hate China bandwagon in an instant.
    Yes folks we are going to screw our economy just like england & europe have with Russian sanctions own goal.

  31. Jenny are we there yet 31
    19 January 2023 at 3:23 pm

    What a disaster

    • Chess Player 31.1
      19 January 2023 at 5:09 pm

      Say what you like about Jacinda, but at least she delivered light rain to the airport and 100,000 affordable homes!

      • Jenny are we there yet 31.1.1
        19 January 2023 at 9:45 pm

        Did you mean to write; ….at least she delivered light rain to the airport?

        Unfortunately she didn't. Light rail was Michael Wood's boondoogle and it will never be delivered to the airport.' Not in any foreseeable future anyway.

        https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/454464/auckland-light-rail-govt-releases-new-proposals-for-rail-route-to-airport

        If the intention was to deliver a rail connection to the airport the quickest and cheapest route with the less disruption and road closures is straight down parallel to Puhinui Rd. Across flat mostly unbuilt open land, no demolitions minimum disruption to the traveling public at the cheapest price and quickest completion. The Puhinui route is far away the quickest cheapest way to get a rail connection to the airport.
        But instead we are being sold a gold plated white elephant that one day might connect to the airport.

  32. Ovid 32
    19 January 2023 at 3:24 pm

    I'm very grateful for the service and leadership Jacinda has given over her time in office. I think we're a better country for it.

    I certainly think more New Zealanders survived the pandemic because she followed the scientific advice. And she navigated the country through a bloody terrorist attack where we could easily have lost our soul.

    But nothing lasts forever and she's to be commended for going on her own terms. I hope she writes a memoir. But more than that I hope she's happy. She deserves to lay down her burdens.

    • weka 32.1
      19 January 2023 at 5:42 pm

      Nice to see you Ovid, and your thoughtful response.

    • Patricia Bremner 32.2
      19 January 2023 at 7:17 pm

      yes Yes Agree.

    • Macro 32.3
      19 January 2023 at 10:00 pm

      yes my thoughts as well. She will be remembered as a great PM in the years ahead. I think we shall see her in some UN or similar appointment in the future. Her task is not yet done.

    • mpledger 32.4
      19 January 2023 at 10:38 pm

      That's pretty much what I wanted to come and say.

      I think her timing was perfect. No rumor mills – just a neat, clean end. And time for the next leader to give themselves bedded in before the election.

      I wish her and her family all the best.

  33. roblogic 33
    19 January 2023 at 3:24 pm

    JA was like a beam of light on a depressing day – when she was elected in 2016 the left, and young people around NZ, took heart from a fantastic role model and leader.

    She started with all the best intentions, hope, and positive thinking. Her vision of a better New Zealand for all, not just the 1%, was something we could all get behind.

    But the relentless machinations of fate, and the darkness of human nature, is not something that one young woman, even a highly capable and charismatic one, can easily overcome.

    I pray that Aotearoa honours her legacy. The greatest leader in my lifetime.

  34. Ad 34
    19 January 2023 at 3:26 pm

    Near inevitable when you've lost 20 points off your last election poll, no matter the reason.

    Members and Caucus have a primary on our hands. Finally some proper politics instead of the over-processed pap we get fed.

    Presumably we now have to look for a replacement for Grant Robertson, as well as a serious reshuffle. This is what happens when you don't promote and refresh well throughout the term.

    Ideally the first person inside the Caucus retreat in Napier to put down a win-plan on the table will emerge as the caucus-preferred candidate. In absence of Ardern and Robertson I don't really care who it is.

    They have 24 hours to win this election since every small move from Napier onward is now shadowed by both National and media.

    • SPC 34.1
      19 January 2023 at 3:49 pm

      GR is available as FM to Oct 2023 and beyond (on re-election).

      • Ad 34.1.1
        19 January 2023 at 4:00 pm

        Available sure, but he and Ardern are a pair and they've taken us to this point.

        Labour won't win with the old team and that include Grant.

    • Tiger Mountain 34.2
      20 January 2023 at 11:27 am

      Correct me if I am wrong…NZ Labour maintains an absolute MMP majority in the New Zealand Parliament till October. The world is their proverbial if they have the inspiration.

  35. Jenny are we there yet 35
    19 January 2023 at 3:29 pm

    I am heartbroken.

    And afraid

  36. mary_a 36
    19 January 2023 at 3:32 pm

    Those dark haters spewing their venom against our PM at present, need to remember the fact they are still up and walking about, unlike many others who lost their lives to Covid, or have become somewhat disabled in some form or other, through the disease. As hard as it has been at times, that came down to good management of Covid by Jacinda and this Labour government. For this I sincerely thank her for helping keeping us Kiwis safe.

    I wish Jacinda and her little family the best of everything life can give them. Much Aroha and blessings Jacinda. You have been and still are the best.

    • weka 37.1
      19 January 2023 at 5:35 pm

      That's how you do it. We (NZ as a whole) have a lot to learn from Māori about being human in politics.

    • Ad 37.2
      19 January 2023 at 8:09 pm

      And yet when it came to the most nation-changing pro-Maori legislation we've done in over a decade, those same fuckwits in the Maori Party today weeping for Ardern, couldn't find a way to vote for the 3 Waters legislation.

      May fate consign those fools to the purgatory of the cross benches forever.

    • Jenny are we there yet 37.3
      19 January 2023 at 10:33 pm

      The only hope of the Left voter now wanting progressive change, is to give their support to Te Pāti Māori so that they are best positioned as Kingmaker.

      Of all the current parliamentary parties Te Pāti Māori has the most Left platform.

      Te Pāti Māori will make New Zealand a republic, not the most pressing issue in my opinion, but an extremely Left one.

      Remove British Royal Family as Head of State

      "Kauaka rā Te Tiriti o Waitangi e ūhia ki te haki o Ingarangi engari me uhia ki te kahu Māori" Āperahama Taonui

      Te Pāti Māori are calling for the House of Representatives to;

      1. Remove the British royal family as head of state; and
      2. Create a Te Tiriti Centric Aotearoa through constitutional transformation

      https://www.maoriparty.org.nz/remove_british_royal_family

      The Māori Party give a nod to the outstanding leadership of Prime Minister Ardern during the Covid Crisis, as an on going example to follow to deal with the cost of living crisis.

      Aotearoa is experiencing the worst cost of living crisis in generations. Hard working whānau are paying half of their weekly income on rent, a trip to the grocery store is more expensive than it has ever been. Everything is going up but wages. In the last year the price of tomatoes has more than doubled, from $2.94 to $7.29 per kilogram. Today 9 dollars might get you a head of cabbage, and that’s if you can afford the petrol to get to the supermarket in the first place.

      GST is a regressive tax that targets lower income whānau who are forced to spend nearly every cent they earn. Meanwhile the wealthy have untaxed wealth accumulating in housing, trusts and investment funds

      Our current tax system has poor and working class people subsidising the lifestyles of the rich. We need to shift this tax burden through new taxes on wealth including capital gains, ghost house tax, financial services tax, and well as land and pollution taxes.

      The Prime Minister proved that this can be done overnight by lowering GST on petrol by 25 cent as petrol prices continue to skyrocket.

      https://www.maoriparty.org.nz/gst_free_kai

      Te Pāti Māori has the most Left Wing climate change policy of all the parliamentary parties. Even the Green Party do not match Te Pāti Māori on climate change.

      The Māori Party will;

      1. End new onshore oil and gas permits and withdraw existing onshore and offshore oil and gas permits within five years and aim to decommission sites by 2030
      2. Ban seabed mining permits nationwide and withdraw existing seabed mining permits
      3. Establish dedicated $1bn Pūngao Auaha fund for Māori-owned community energy projects and solar panel and insulation instillations on marae, kura, homes and papakāinga housing developments
      4. Work alongside interested whānau, hapū and iwi to develop a national Māori strategy for renewable energy and clean technology and ensure the Crown supports Māori-led clean technology projects with R&D, start-up funding, and partnership finance
      5. Phase out synthetic nitrogen fertiliser on farms by 2025 and bring methane emissions from agriculture into the ETS to disincentivise intensive methane-emitting agriculture
      6. Establish $300m Mātai Ahuwhenua innovation and support fund to incentivise Māori farmers to transition to regenerative and value-add farming practises
      7. Ensure the Crown works with whānau, hapū and iwi to establish climate change adaptation plans and establish a fund to support whānau, hapū and iwi with adaptation
      8. Ensure Aotearoa plays a greater role in supporting Pasifika leaders on the world stage through aggressive diplomatic efforts

      https://www.maoriparty.org.nz/climate_change

      “Progressive voters have only one sensible place to put their vote in 2023” John Minto

      https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2023/01/17/progressive-voters-have-only-one-sensible-place-to-put-their-vote-in-2023/

  38. Obtrectator 38
    19 January 2023 at 4:03 pm

    "It is a pretty good idea to get out when they still want you." – Calvin Coolidge, US President 1923-29.

    (By coincidence, he served in the top job for almost the exact same length of time as JA, and may himself have quit because he felt he wasn't up to another four years at it.)

  39. Mike the Lefty 39
    19 January 2023 at 4:32 pm

    I am a bit sad, but not really very surprised.

    She has been subject to the nastiest orchestrated hate campaign in NZ history and that would be enough to eventually wear down the hardest skinned politician.

    I for one admire her for her leadership of this country in times of crisis.

    I will probably have a lot more to say on this later, but this will suffice at the moment.

    • Anne 39.1
      19 January 2023 at 5:04 pm

      I have a little more to say, at least someone else has said it for me:

      Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was “driven from politics” because of “constant personalisation and vilification” in what Te Pāti Māori labelled the most “demeaning form of politics we have ever seen”.

      Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer pulled no punches in her reaction to Ardern’s shock resignation and said the Prime Minister’s “whānau have withstood the ugliest attacks over the last two years”.

      “Te Pāti Māori wishes to thank the outstanding contribution Jacinda Ardern has made to our country,” Ngarewa-Packer said.

      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/jacinda-ardern-quits-as-prime-minister-nationals-christopher-luxons-message-of-thanks/VAYGCLROC5BDTL2SAPW6JLPUSM/

      Three cheers for Debbie Ngarewa-Parker for saying it how it really is.

      I expect the "haters and strirrers" are all dancing with glee. They did it. They drove her out. That is what NZ has come to and the 'powers that be' just stood by and let it all happen.

      I am ashamed to be a NZer!

      • Anne 39.1.1
        19 January 2023 at 5:13 pm

        I see Joe90 beat me to it.

        It needs to be said over and over again and those who fell for the tripe written and said about Jacinda just might feel a tad ashamed. Yes, I know, wishful thinking.

      • mosa 39.1.2
        19 January 2023 at 7:53 pm

        Thanks Anne. I have said on the Daily Blog that I have never engaged in personal attacks against Jacinda Adern because for a start I have never met her or known her personally which does not allow me to demean her personally.

        I have been critical of the lack of transformation and the sadness of an opportunity lost with her empathy and kindness so often on display during our darkest times over the last five years and the change she could have driven domestically that she campaigned on in 2017 and 2020.

        She could have been so much more and the light against the darkness ahead.

  40. Chess Player 40
    19 January 2023 at 4:45 pm

    Now watch the property market fire up again, and prices start rising.

    • observer 40.1
      19 January 2023 at 5:07 pm

      Who wants that? Sure, let's solve our economic challenges by blowing up the housing bubble, because that has worked so well before …

      One consolation from a possible Nat-ACT government is that when they undo everything Labour have done and speculators cash in at the expense of the vast majority, the public reaction would destroy that government.

    • Patricia Bremner 40.2
      20 January 2023 at 12:14 pm

      Even your own on interest.co.nz don't wish for that.

  41. Red Blooded One 41
    19 January 2023 at 5:21 pm

    Today I drove passed the truck that has parked opposite Magic Tyres in Whangarei for the last few years, with its massive billboard likening Jacinda to Hitler and seeing it had grown today to add Super Bitch etc and thought, what contempt I have for those people and those who have played Dirty Politics all the way through her Leadership. What an outstanding PM she is, soon to be was, and how lucky we were to have had her strength, courage and empathy during the last five years.

  42. Corey Humm 42
    19 January 2023 at 5:58 pm

    Earlier in the day I was quite negative, I truly like Ardern as a person, she's a kind person from my interactions with her she really cares.

    My anger with this govt comes from the heartbreak of lost opportunities.

    In my adult life only Bernie Sanders and Jacinda Ardern really ever got me optimistic for the future.

    That 2017 campaign I was so excited that we finally had a young person leading the country talking about issues of poverty, the housing crisis, she talked about supporting marijuana reform during the 2017 debates, the working poor and how neoliberalism was a failure.

    I knocked on hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of doors, campaigned in that last two stretch almost 24/7, dragged people to the voting booths.

    I was so proud when she was elected, so proud NZ had a pm who gave birth and I was so proud of how she handled march 15, how this one pm from a small country got so much international attention and how people really really loved her here and abroad.

    However, it became obvious not long after March 15, when while polling at 50+ % she spent her political capital to rule out her own parties policies like a cgt that the hope was misplaced.

    The changes didn't ever really come, in 2017 she said she'd absolutely support drug reform, in 2020 she wouldn't say one way or the other despite polling at historic levels.

    Labours reaction after the 2020 election, for a moment made me optimistic again, wow maybe we could finally get that transformational change, then the policies the govt focused on were things they didn't campaign on or wouldn't actually help the day to day lives of citizens and would clearly take up way too much parliamentary term time for other things that would help people to get done.

    Jacinda has been wrongly vilified. I feel sorry for her she's a good person.

    However, she broke mine and many peoples hearts, finally after five decades we had an opportunity to undo decades of neoliberalism and turn NZ into a fairer more social democratic state and we focused on drains and pipes, hate speech, media reforms, reforms to health bureaucracy rather than improving the capacity of it and using private developers who caused the housing crisis to fix the housing crisis.

    It's a bummer. Such a wasted opportunity.

    I'll remember the optimism she inspired that things could change, because they can change. You just have to actually do this when you say you're going to do it.

    • weka 42.1
      19 January 2023 at 6:26 pm

      thanks for this follow up comment. I'm feeling a lot about her leaving and it's always a struggle when the juxtaposition between the good and the let down is so strong.

      I don't know how much of the disappointing stuff is on Ardern, or that she was working in a caucus that wasn't willing to allow radical change, or what. Maybe there are hidden clauses in some of the free trade agreements that tied her hands too.

      Mostly I think we are lucky to have had her, and that it's the system as a whole that is blocking real change for the better. Whether she could have overcome that I don't know.

      Reading the responses to your comment above, I was thinking how I've written a lot of criticism of Labour in the past 6 years, but it's easier for me to praise JA at times like this because while I am part of the underclass I have some important buffers to that eg from my middle class background and family. I can totally understand why people who've been left behind or whose struggle is still not being attended to would also feel a lot of hot anger today. Mostly I wish that the left would organise so that we don't have to pin so many hopes on our leaders.

    • DB Brown 42.2
      19 January 2023 at 7:02 pm

      Was clear you were grieving. We all gotta deal with this, sucks but it is.

      Not sure the election's thrown away? National have zero ideas, and without 'Communist Cindy' to focus all that hate on, camp feral may lose focus as they scramble to re-calibrate which evil threat to all that is good they must vilify next.

      Someone not afraid to call a spade a spade is what's required right now. Sure be kind, but that includes having the respect of presenting with facts and reality, and if opposition can't do that, by all means point it out loudly and often – it's a kindness to the general public to tell us the truth.

      They've cut down our tallest poppy. I'm pissed off too.

    • Patricia Bremner 42.3
      19 January 2023 at 7:28 pm

      Regroup is what we have to do. Cheers Corey.

    • Shanreagh 42.4
      19 January 2023 at 7:33 pm

      Thanks Corey…….faith restored!

    • mosa 42.5
      19 January 2023 at 7:41 pm

      Well done Corey and don't let the nastiness of some on this site stop you from contributing !

      I will go into bat for you if they allow my comments in rebuttal.

      Its a bit sensitive with the egos on here.

    • Ad 42.6
      19 January 2023 at 8:05 pm

      Holy Jesus inhale and check out what Labour's political capital was actually spent on.

      The moves this government has done in five years are when you rack them up comparable to Lange and Douglas in their first term.

      Weep not, and prepare to defend the record of this government. Really not that hard.

  43. mosa 43
    19 January 2023 at 7:08 pm

    " If anyone is looking for a positive side, there's this: Ardern ruled out a capital gains tax "under my leadership". Well, she's gone, and so a capital gains tax is back on the table. The question is, will Labour seize the opportunity, and take the popular step of taxing the rich on their unearned wealth? Or will they chickenshit out again to protect their own house-hoards? And if they do the latter, why should anybody bother voting for them? "

    http://norightturn.blogspot.com/

    • Patricia Bremner 43.1
      19 January 2023 at 7:31 pm

      Mosa, that may have been an added reason.?

    • Tony Veitch 43.2
      19 January 2023 at 7:35 pm

      NRT is right, and a new leader is a chance for a complete reset.

      Perhaps, just perhaps, Labour could turn left – like in a CGT, a FTT and higher taxes on the 1% and their 9% enablers to fund free dental care and a chance to completely undo rogernomics and ruthenasia.

      Maybe its a new chance to do something about the appalling inequality since the neoliberal disaster?

      • Hanswurst 43.2.1
        19 January 2023 at 8:43 pm

        I agree with mich of that. Contrary to the narrative that is sometimes presented, there is no real evidence that the Labour government is in terminal decline, with polling showing a fairly close race between left and right. Labour's best chance of winning would appear to be a realignment of its narrative and policy platform, while promoting itself as the safe and experienced option, in contrast to the inexperienced and incompetent rabble currently in opposition. Executed and promoted well, a realignment could see Labour able to form a government after the election, but a change in orientation would probably not have seemed credible with the same leadership in place, and that consideration may have been in the mix when it came to Ardern's decision to step down at this time. Certainly, the opposition and the media would have had a field day with a narrative of flip-flops and about-faces.

        It remains to be seen whether such a recalibration would cleave to the left or to the right, but experience – including when Ardern herself took over the party reigns in 2017 – suggests that, rather than taking the intuitively obvious option of differentiating itself from the opposition under new leadership, a party will tend to move as close as possible to the opposition, while sustaining just enough policy and rhetoric to appeal to its own base slightly more than the other lot (after all, they both focus-group the same population, based on the same assumption of a centrist swing-voter). I am, therefore, inclined to expect that, in the event of any distinct change in rhetoric and/or policy, it will be to the right. Of course, all of this remains to be seen.

        On the plus-side, the timing of Ardern's resignation allows enough time for her successor to make their case with a refreshed team and a new narrative, but too little for the opposition to apportion any credible blame to the new leadership for any failures (that the present Labour government will take such blame is inevitable, regardless of who is in charge). As much as Ardern might, in a straight-up comparison of personal popularity and credentials, have been the most likely individual to lead Labour to victory this year, it may very well be that her resignation provides the best chance for Labour as a party to fight and win.

        • Shanreagh 43.2.1.1
          19 January 2023 at 10:03 pm

          Very good points Hanswurst.

          As much as Ardern might, in a straight-up comparison of personal popularity and credentials, have been the most likely individual to lead Labour to victory this year, it may very well be that her resignation provides the best chance for Labour as a party to fight and win.

          From Tony Veitch

          NRT is right, and a new leader is a chance for a complete reset.

          Perhaps, just perhaps, Labour could turn left – like in a CGT, a FTT and higher taxes on the 1% and their 9% enablers to fund free dental care and a chance to completely undo rogernomics and ruthenasia.

          I would be keen on work on the tax brackets as well as higher levels of tax for those on very high incomes.

          • Hanswurst 43.2.1.1.1
            20 January 2023 at 1:04 am

            Yes, I should be keen on all of that as well, and it is indeed an opportunity for a leftward tack like that. What shouldn't be ignored, however, is that it is equally an opportunity for a rightward tack. Unfortunately, trends over the last forty years or so, and increasingly in the last few, favour the latter.

        • Patricia Bremner 43.2.1.2
          20 January 2023 at 12:29 pm

          That is as good a summary of the situation, as any I have read. Socialists have to face winning the "middle" to continue incremental change. That is pragmatic.

          Extreme positions do alienate, and the right are tarred with the extremists.

  44. Jenny are we there yet 44
    19 January 2023 at 7:31 pm

    Hate defeats Kindness

  45. Reality 45
    19 January 2023 at 7:40 pm

    It is a very sad day for NZ that we are losing a leader of the calibre of Jacinda. We will miss her sunny smile and friendly personality, despite the extreme nastiness that was thrown at her by jealous horrible people. But totally understandable that she is choosing to move on and have a more normal life. Thank you Jacinda for everything you did for us through very difficult, unique times, which no other leader here has ever had to face.

  46. Anne 46
    19 January 2023 at 7:44 pm

    Former PM, Helen Clark sums it up:

    It was with deep sadness that I received the news on waking in Europe this morning that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is stepping down.

    During almost five and a half years as Prime Minister, Jacinda has done an extraordinary job in leading New Zealand through major crises, delivering on a large social policy agenda aimed at rebuilding opportunity and fairness, presiding over an economy which has performed better than most of its peers in challenging global circumstances, and positioning New Zealand as a country which stands for international co-operation and decent values.

    The pressures on Prime Ministers are always great, but in this era of social media, clickbait, and 24/7 media cycles, Jacinda has faced a level of hatred and vitriol which in my experience is unprecedented in our country. Our society could now usefully reflect on whether it wants to continue to tolerate the excessive polarisation which is making politics an increasingly unattractive calling.

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/01/prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-announces-election-2023-will-be-held-on-october-14.html

    • mosa 46.1
      19 January 2023 at 7:55 pm

      Great link thanks Anne.

    • Muttonbird 46.2
      19 January 2023 at 7:57 pm

      The pressures on Prime Ministers are always great, but in this era of social media, clickbait, and 24/7 media cycles, Jacinda has faced a level of hatred and vitriol which in my experience is unprecedented in our country.

      It's not because of media cycles and clickbait, it's because the right of politics is full of hate and violence. And we in NZ tolerate and even encourage it!

      JA is too good for us.

      • Anne 46.2.1
        19 January 2023 at 8:21 pm

        Had personal experience Muttonbird back in the 1980s and early 1990s. Not as a politician but I was associated with politics. It builds up slowly with lies and deceitful practices but its when it enters the violent stage – or the threats of violence – that the effects really kick in for the unfortunate target.

        When a country does not take action against this type of behaviour then the perpetrators feel enabled to go even further. That is what has happened to Jacinda and I challenge the authorities to do the right thing… get off your backsides and take action!

      • In Vino 46.2.2
        19 January 2023 at 8:53 pm

        +1

    • ianmac 46.3
      19 January 2023 at 9:24 pm

      Thanks Anne and Helen.

      It always intrigues me that those Anti-Jacinda trolls constantly say how awful the Government is but seldom say what or how. Almost as though they pre-write anti comments and press send. No matter what the topic is. Just send. Just like Luxon does or Seymour. I imagine a team of writers composing variations of antis and getting paid with coins.

      • Anne 46.3.1
        19 January 2023 at 9:50 pm

        Seymour's response on TV1 news tonight was an eye opener. Not a trace of empathy for what she has endured. Apart from a half hearted attempt to sound vaguely grateful about something or another, he dismissed her out of hand. The tone of his comment suggested he has deluded himself into thinking he's a superior person to her. What a jerk.

        • PsyclingLeft.Always 46.3.1.1
          19 January 2023 at 10:02 pm

          She had him summed at arrogant prick…………..

        • Macro 46.3.1.2
          19 January 2023 at 10:12 pm

          You actually listened to him!? I muted the TV as soon as he opened his mouth to avoid having to throw my after dinner coffee at it.

  47. Rrm 47
    19 January 2023 at 8:58 pm

    I never voted for her, but I am genuinely thankful for the way she handled the aftermath of the chch terrorist atrocity, and for me that is the best thing she did by a mile.

    Like many on the right I thought her hijab wearing shows of gratuitous photo-op hugging were beyond cringe.

    But the rest of the world saw it differently, including the Sultan of Dubai who felt moved to beam her message of fundamental human love and peace on his giant tower for the whole world to see. Along with some strong words of leadership and respect on behalf of the whole Muslim world.

    That's probably the only reason we didn't see al-qaeda or daesh sponsored reprisal attacks in our country, and that's all credit to Jacinda and her sense of style. So I thank her for that.

    • Macro 48.1
      19 January 2023 at 10:07 pm

      I for one can't comprehend how anyone can watch that obnoxious fool. He is despicable, and not just because of what he has said regarding a person many times more capable and caring than he will ever be.

  49. observer 49
    19 January 2023 at 10:29 pm

    One plus is that Jacinda and Clarke will now be getting less of the unsolicited relationship advice from political commentators and online idiots.

    For over 5 years she's been told that every aspect of her personal life from getting pregnant to getting engaged and married was really happening because of the polls. Only a misogynist minority were that obsessive, but it was a constant attack line and it has been bizarre and creepy to witness.

  50. Jenny are we there yet 50
    19 January 2023 at 10:57 pm

    In a phone conversation today with of one of the leaders of one of the bigger unions, I was told; Of the contenders for the Premiership, Michael Wood is the union movement's preferred choice.

    Whether MW gets the position or not, will be a test of the influence, (if any), the trade union movement still wield inside the modern Labour Party.

  51. Adrian Thornton 51
    19 January 2023 at 11:04 pm

    What a fucking cop out…..you lead your party into the unwinnable election and then resign, that is the honorable tradition, but just like that other cynical careerist Key, puts her CV before her country and jumps ship before the hammer falls….I always thought she was a a careerist first and foremost, but didn't think she was this cynical.

    The most underwhelming NZ Labour Leader in my life time…just another good (very good) manager for the status quo centrist free market ideologes, nothing more or less…that's why all the worlds media that defends that ideology loved her so much.

    • Jeremy 51.1
      19 January 2023 at 11:19 pm

      The difference is Key would have won

    • DB Brown 51.2
      20 January 2023 at 12:00 am

      There are some constants, and you being a graceless asshat is one of them.

      • Descendant Of Smith 51.2.1
        20 January 2023 at 6:31 am

        Her failure to fully implement the WEAG recommendations immediately when she had the support of the public to welfare reform is a fairly abject failure and a victory for the right wing neo-liberal bureaucrats that have infested the senior ranks of the public service.

        Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern asked officials for advice on raising benefits by twice as much at this year’s budget, but the Government ultimately opted against it.

        Officials had concerns about the $50 boost’s potential to discourage beneficiaries seeking work, but conceded that it could lift far more children out of poverty quickly – 25,000 instead of 14,000 this year.

        This was a twice in a life-time opportunity to do something meaningful to help those at the bottom – Helen Clark putting the $20-00 per week back on NZS but neglecting to do so for benefits being the other.

        The two tier benefit system introduced during COVID-19 in which beneficiaries received substantially less than laid off workers and the removal of partner income tests was further reinforcement of the hollowness of the rhetoric to lift people out of poverty.

        Adrian is right to say what he has said. Others may feel that the COVID response and the mosque response outweighs these failures but I don't.

        This failure helped enable the right to be able to foster ill-will to the left by the most vulnerable who felt unsupported as they continued to struggle. Those on the right are laughing their heads off at how they have managed to convince poor people to agitate against their interests.

        It isn't just Jacinda Adern's failure – it is a whole of Labour Party failure.

        Will a new leader shift things more leftward or will Labour continue to be national light?

        In the meantime look forward if National get in the the target driven toxic environment that existed prior to getting a labour government. National without the moderating influence of Bill English doesn't fill me with joy.

        Hopefully the Greens will pick up a lot of the anti-labour disaffected but I suspect we might see a lot more non-voting from the rather than a shift.

        • Tiger Mountain 51.2.1.1
          20 January 2023 at 7:46 am

          Good points DOS, all of which I have raised in posts here on The Standard previously. That two tier COVID benefit, making COVID payments through employers rather than directly to citizens via IRD, and stalling on WEAG really ground my gears.

          The Labour Caucus have one last chance now, they still have a once in a generation MMP majority until October and should go for it. But hey, dreams are free.

          But I am not a heartless person, and liked the PM for many reasons, and really despair of thousands of our fellow New Zealanders falling for the ugly Trump style lines.

          • Nic the NZer 51.2.1.1.1
            20 January 2023 at 9:26 am

            Making COVID payments directly to citizens would have been a terrible idea.

            The point of these payments was to facilitate the temporary shutdown of the economy. The idea was that after this had completed then it was possible just to restart the economy again (which is largely what happened).

            Making payments directly to citizens would have had some downsides,

            1) May have required a large scale sign-up process with IRD.

            2) May have required a large new payment processing database, associated project and participation to assess any means testing.

            3) May have been universal, and therefore gone to people who didn't need it.

            4) Would not have maintained existing employment relationships.

            5) May have bankrupted many businesses as they could no longer maintain payments through the shutdown.

            While there are a few ways you could specifically think of this being implemented they all suffer from some of these issues. Reducing one impact often exacerbates another.

            This would have badly impacted the effectiveness of maintaining the economy while limiting contacts.

            I get the impression this concept is a popular idea because of some inequality impacts of the pandemic, but in this regard the inequality impacts would have been clearly much larger. Imagining it as some specific universal income payment during lock-down makes this clear. There were a decent number of businesses who were still fully operational in that working from home environment and they never received any payments related to lock-down, neither did their employers. If they did receive payments their staff would have done even better across the lock-down period again. This should highlight that the alternatives actually had even worse such inequality characteristics again.

            You should give credit where its due, this was a well organised response to the pandemic on a short timescale and actually minimized in its design some of the inequality impacts inherent in the pandemic.

            • DB Brown 51.2.1.1.1.1
              20 January 2023 at 9:40 am

              They'll twist any achievement into a negative, that is what they do.

              • Descendant Of Smith …
                20 January 2023 at 9:54 am

                Who is this they you refer to.

                I've been very consistent on this site for the entire time I've been on it about the need to lift benefit rates and critical of Labour for not doing so.

                • DB Brown …
                  20 January 2023 at 1:08 pm

                  The never happy. Not specifically you. Not any particular individual more alluding to those fringes left or right who can't let good work get in the way of a good whinge.

                  Maybe I'm being overly sensitive right now.

                  Do things really get done when we make all the changes at once, or instead would we get backlash and it all undone again. That seems to be the effect of letting those who want radical change get their way. The to and fro of governments undoing progress from each other is infantile and extremely costly to us all. No matter how it can be argued as right or moral, no matter how frustrating, incrementalism can typically bring the populace with it, while radical changes will not.

                  Climate is a different matter, there is much urgency, and incrementalism will not cut it. But there's that tricky shit, the public backlash at election time. Can't be voting in a bunch of fundamentalist nutbars like they do in the US, it's a daft way to 'own the libs' that, burning the place down to own the ashes.

                  In consistently moaning about what has not been done the message of what has been done is overwhelmed.

                  And much has been done.

                  https://www.labour.org.nz/our-record

                  • Descendant Of Smith …
                    20 January 2023 at 1:38 pm

                    I just thought the attack on Adrian was unfair. He also has been pretty consistent about the impacts on the poor. (I don't necessarily agree with his views on Ukraine and Russia).

                    You miss the point in that there was actually public support to implement to WEAG changes. I have no doubt that if Labour had implemented the whole lot of the WEAG recommendations that they would not have garnished a backlash. Up until the point they didn't implement it I thought it was a masterpiece example of how to get the public on board. Sadly like many things it fell down at the implementation stage.

                    That is the lost opportunity and that doesn't mean that we don't think progress has been made not that things like the handling of the pandemic weren't done well. That has been expressed previously and elsewhere.

                    Jacinda hasn't died for goodness sake and it isn't a eulogy. Besides we are in good company with that criticism.

                    “In 2019, WEAG described this comprehensive package of increases as a ‘minimum, immediate first step’, yet families have lost out on crucial income over the last few years due to slow Government roll-out. A couple on Supported Living Payment with one child will have been denied over $25,000 by April next year, because welfare reform was not implemented as quickly as WEAG recommended. These are significant sums that could have made a vital difference to family and whānau wellbeing, particularly during the pandemic.”

                    https://www.cpag.org.nz/media-releases/govt-yet-to-fully-implement-a-single-key

                    Nor are we ranting about anti-vax or other idiotic conspiracies or being insulting and demeaning – unlike labelling us as never happy.

              • Nic the NZer …
                20 January 2023 at 12:08 pm

                Thanks for the astute observation.

            • Tiger Mountain 51.2.1.1.1.2
              20 January 2023 at 9:59 am

              Spoken like a true Ministry insider…

              My point was that working class people could not always easily access COVID assistance or obtain it.

              Carter Holt Harvey for instance got 7 odd mill from the Govt. and proceeded to make workers pay with out proper consultation as per the relevant CEAs. https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/129584316/carter-holt-harvey-case-a-win-for-all-working-peopleto harvest employee leave

              https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/472927/carter-holt-harvey-not-entitled-to-make-workers-take-annual-leave-during-lockdown

              Give Employers an inch…

              • Nic the NZer …
                20 January 2023 at 10:10 am

                I'm not a ministry anything, never have been.

                But if your suggesting an actual way to minimize the abuse of the system then you will actually have to propose another way to organize it. As I have made clear I don't think there is one which doesn't severely damage the actual point of the lock-down.

                Another good point of organizing it via employers being its now possible to report on and potentially correct the abuses which have occurred. That's not an available outcome if your lock-down approach delayed elimination by weeks or months or resulted in large scale business bankruptcy.

        • SPC 51.2.1.2
          20 January 2023 at 9:42 am

          Officials had concerns about the $50 boost’s potential to discourage beneficiaries seeking work, but conceded that it could lift far more children out of poverty quickly – 25,000 instead of 14,000 this year.

          There were/are ways to achieve the same without focus on a lift to base benefit rates.

          For example a rent freeze may have saved some from a $25-50 a week increase in rent. Or a lift in support payments per child for those on benefits.

      • Jenny are we there yet 51.2.2
        20 January 2023 at 7:30 am

        yes

    • Drowsy M. Kram 51.3
      20 January 2023 at 2:20 am

      Feeling despondent, and sad for Aotearoa NZ, but happy for our PM, and grateful.

      …just another good (very good) manager for the status quo centrist free market ideologes, nothing more or less…that's why all the worlds media that defends that ideology loved her so much.

      Just a "pretty communist" to some, and much more, imho. But you can’t top Tucker.

      Tucker Carlson calls New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern “an appalling abuser of human rights of her own people”
      What are the chances she was a puppet of the Chinese government? We don't have enough evidence to prove that, but we would rate that as about 100 percent likely.

    • bwaghorn 51.4
      20 January 2023 at 6:19 am

      Or possibly a living breathing human who's had enough after 5 years of constant stress leading a country populated by an increasing number of angry muppets that don't know how lucky we ate.

      50 threats against her, sexist foul abuse allover the internet.

      She didn't nail everything, let down by ministers that couldn't deliver

      • Peter 51.4.1
        20 January 2023 at 7:24 am

        That sums it up. I can imagine the, "I don't have to put up with this shit any longer," attitude.

    • Hanswurst 51.5
      20 January 2023 at 8:44 am

      I agree that Ardern has led a fairly underwhelming government from the point of view of reform and vision, but I also think that she, like anyone, deserves the right to decide to call it a day when she feels she needs to. There is no honour in leading your party into an unwinnable election (that just sounds like antiquated, stiff-upper-lip chivalry bollocks to me), only to keeping on because you think you're giving them the best chance of winning.

      • Mac1 51.5.1
        21 January 2023 at 6:46 pm

        Hanswurst, you might remember that we had three years of coalition with a dominantly centre-right party, NZ First, under Winston Peters who now would not go with Labour, followed by a three-tiered constriction to reform- Covid especially, but also overseas financial and geo-political constraints, local disasters and terrorist attack.

        Now is the time to re-present to the voting public what Labour would have been without such inhibiting factors.

  52. Jenny are we there yet 52
    20 January 2023 at 7:08 am

    Following a vile well funded campaign of hate, that on occasion even descended into violence

    If anyone knows how it feels to be shit on it's our Prime Minister.

    To prevent such a hateful campaign targeting our leaders ever occurring again, the funders of the hate campaign need to be identified and charged.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/463253/parliament-protest-questions-remain-on-source-of-donations-and-where-they-went

    • Anne 52.1
      20 January 2023 at 12:18 pm

      "… the funders of the hate campaign need to be identified and charged."

      That is my view too. It didn't happen in a vacuum. There was a group orchestrating the campaign. Some identities we know about, others are lurking in the shadows.

      Thus far, they have got away with murder (metaphorically speaking). All that does is enable future attempts to occur adopting the same modus operandi.

      Make an example of them and prosecute them!

      • Patricia Bremner 52.1.1
        20 January 2023 at 12:45 pm

        yes I agree. They should be outed.

      • Stuart Munro 52.1.2
        21 January 2023 at 6:32 pm

        Good call – a lot of this crap is Trumpist, and may have input from other foreign undesirables too. It should not enjoy the protection of freedom of speech traditions designed to protect genuine dissent.