‘Really fortunate’: Chris Hipkins to replace Jacinda Ardern as next NZ PM

Wellington: Chris Hipkins will become the next prime minister of New Zealand after he was the sole nominee for the role vacated by Jacinda Ardern.

Ardern announced her shock resignation on Thursday, citing exhaustion after five and a half years in the job.

Chris Hipkins speaks during a press conference at the NZ Parliament on January 21. He was the sole nominee for Labour Party leader and prime minister to replace Jacinda Ardern.Credit: Getty Images

Her surprise exit – not known to her party room until just hours before – set Labour MPs racing to find a replacement as party leader and prime minister.

Hipkins emerged as the consensus candidate and was the only nominee for the role in a hastily convened leadership ballot. The ballot had been expected to take place on Sunday.

Senior MPs stayed tight-lipped as they held talks in Napier, where they had travelled for the year-starting party retreat, and back in Wellington.

No MP signalled their intention to run ahead of the nomination deadline at 9am on Saturday (7am AEDT), staying true to a pact to keep discussions in-house.

Shortly after that passed, party whip Duncan Webb informed MPs of the sole candidate: Hipkins.

The 44-year-old will be ratified as party leader at a caucus meeting on Sunday. Ardern will then tender her resignation to the Governor-General before he is formally appointed. He is set to hold his first press conference on Saturday afternoon.

“I think we’re an incredibly strong team,” Hipkins told a news conference after the party announced him as the sole candidate.

“We’ve gone through this process with unity and we’ll continue to do that. I’m feeling really fortunate to be working with such an amazing group of people who have a real commitment to the service of the people of New Zealand.”

He would not be drawn on his policy plans. A cabinet reshuffle proposed by Ardern would go ahead, but Finance Minister Grant Robertson was likely to continue in the role, he said.

Hipkins, the Remutaka MP, is a well-liked member of parliament, known for his sense of humour and enjoyment of sausage rolls.

He is a Labour lifer, volunteering for the party at a young age, becoming president of his university student union and entering parliament in 2008 in the same cohort as Ardern.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Twitter that he had a “warm discussion” with his new counterpart on Saturday morning and was looking forward to working with him.

A trusted political ally of Ardern, Hipkins became a household name fronting the government’s response to the pandemic after being appointed minister for COVID-19 in November 2020. He is currently minister for police, education and public service, as well as leader of the House.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced her resignation last week.Credit: Warren Buckland

They are also close friends, taking their young children on play dates.

Hipkins is also a political warrior with an enthusiasm for point-scoring that has led to him making retractions and apologies.

His most notable episode for Australians came in 2017, when he used parliament to dig for information around the dual citizenship status of Barnaby Joyce, drawing censures from then-Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop and Ardern in a rare trans-Tasman spat.

This week, Hipkins was quickly seen by Labour MPs as their best choice to follow Ardern, especially given Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson’s decision to rule himself out of contention.

The hastily convened 44-hour process did not allow grassroots Labour members a say in picking the prime minister.

Both Hipkins and Ardern argued this was crucial to allow stability for the government.

“The most important thing is that we focus on a process that is swift, that ensures that the team was able to move quickly back to focusing on the issues that matter for New Zealand,” Ardern said.

Hipkins will now take the party to the next election which Ardern set for October 14.

While the public was not included in the process, Hipkins appears to be the popular pick. A variety of polls from NZ media outlets and polling agencies confirmed he was the most popular Labour MP to follow in her footsteps.

Local media also reported the party may re-think its deputy leader role, currently held by Kelvin Davis.

Kiritapu Allan and Carmel Sepuloni have been mooted as possible leadership partners for Hipkins, who is likely to be sworn in as prime minister next week.

Ardern said she will leave parliament altogether by April.

New Zealand Green Party, Labour’s traditional coalition partner, said it was looking forward to working with Hipkins.

“Chris will make an excellent Prime Minister and we look forward to continuing our work together, for the rest of this term and the next,” co-leader James Shaw said.

AAP, Reuters

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