Jacinda Ardern remains poll favourite โ but which struggling leaders are on the rise?
Jacinda Ardern remains New Zealandโs most popular political figure, buoyed by a wave of international attention following the release of a documentary about her premiership.
The latest The Post/Freshwater Strategy poll with Infrastructure New Zealand shows the former prime minister with a net favourability of +17, up six points since October, reinforcing her continued dominance of domestic politics.
Ardern resigned in January 2023, amid growing political headwinds, and falling approval ratings as concerns rose over living costs and crime rates. Labour went on to lose the general election later that year.
Jacinda being the most popular Politician in NZ reminds us the right wing anti-vax hate trolls are the tiny minority.
I believe the last election was decided by voters embittered post Covid who had gone from being the team of 5 million into a cult hating on Jacinda.
The disinformation, misinformation and naked misogyny that infected our debate still carries the scars today.
One of the reasons I was so vocal against using excessive force against the Dumb Lives Matter protests on Parliamentโs lawns was because if you donโt allow disgruntled people their opportunity to speak, it turns into a dark treacle of hate and all those protestors we beat up went home with a terrible anger.
50% of those on Parliaments lawns voted Green and Labour, (a fact the middle class Wellington Woke never wanted ย to acknowledge), and we permanently lost 5% of the vote for the Left by refusing them their right to be heard.
We should have enabled immediate access to benefits for those who lost their jobs because of their refusal to take the vaccine rather than the 13 weeks stand down period and most importantly, Labour needed to thank and reward Auckland for holding the line as long as we did so that the rest of the country could get vaccinated.
Instead all Labour offered us was GST off fruit and vegetables which felt like a massive slap in the face to every Aucklander who sacrificed for the good of the nation.
But those issues aside, Jacinda saved this country from 20 000 needless deaths, admittedly most of those saved 20 000 were boomers who promptly rewarded her by spitefully voting for NZFirst.
No good deed goes unpunished.
The documentary Prime Minister is a powerful reminder of how bloody hard Jacinda worked to protect us all from a once in a century pandemic and reminds us just how well she did despite the tsunami of rage that swept her awayโฆ
New Zealandโs royal commission on lessons learned from the pandemic published its first report this summer and in comparison with the British Covid inquiryโs withering โtoo little, too lateโ verdict on the Johnson governmentโs handling of the pandemic, Ardern emerges practically glowing. Her โbe strong and be kindโ strategy, which involved sealing borders early to keep the virus at bay, was judged effective in public health terms, holding back infections until a vaccine was ready and allowing the country to spend less time in strict lockdowns than others around the world.
โฆwe forget the successes of Jacindaโs handling of the pandemic by focussing on the mistakes and this myopic fury allowed voters to elect National, ACT and NZF without comprehending what those 3 Parties would do.
We now have a hard right anti-Mฤori, anti-Treaty, anti-disabled, anti-beneficiary, anti-worker, anti-renter and anti-environment Government who are strangling the common good for their donors interests.
We have allowed Crony Capitalism to replace the common ground between us as citizens all because hating Jacinda has become a cult on the right.
Itโs heartbreaking that she will never be able to liven NZ with her family without security again because so many feral anti-vaxxers wish her harm.
She is hated for having the temerity to save 20 000 lives and for putting public health before private profit.
This is who we is, this is what we have become.
Hate is the new black.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, soย if you value having an independent voice โ please donate here.
Comrade As much as I love your takes, Auckland wasn’t made to suffer a long lockdown to wait for the rest of the country to get vaxxed, it was quite the opposite.
The Canterbury, Wellington, Otago regions had vaccination rates of 88-93% when Auckland still had a vaccination rate of around 76%
Auckland was one of the slowest regions to get vaccinated and the rest of the country was furious about it, because Auckland was the only city with cases for much of that last lockdown.
I remember there being much anger because the entire south island, separated by a body of water had no cases and much higher vaccination rates than the north island but couldn’t go from level four restrictions to level three restrictions because everyone in cabinet was from Auckland or Wellington (which is something labour need to change, chch population is exploding, nearly doubling in fifteen years and expected to reach a million people in 15-20, is now a major economic driver of the country so labour can’t be just welly and Auckland rep heavy going forward)
It’s not a competition, but by no means did Auckland suffer for the rest of the country, the rest of the country suffered because Auckland was exploding with infections and had low vax rates.
It sucked for everyone but we came together cos we’re kiwis