Celebrity abroad, Jacinda Ardern labours at home
Why is the image abroad so far removed from the reality at home for Jacinda Ardern, the unlikely Prime Minister of New Zealand?
She is lauded the world over as the progressive, popular and compassionate youthful leader who has managed to juggle the demands of public life with raising a young child.
So why is the image abroad so far removed from the reality at home for Jacinda Ardern, the unlikely Prime Minister of New Zealand?
Ms Ardern, in Australia this week for her annual pow-wow with her Australian counterpart, is struggling to hold on to power seven months out from an election. “She is regarded as a bit of a show pony who is not delivering,” said John Wanna, from ANU’s Australia and New Zealand School of Government.
At the heart of the Ardern dichotomy is Winston Peters, the thorn in the side of successive New Zealand leaders for decades. A political pugilist and serial survivor. The irony is Ms Ardern only holds power at Mr Peters’ pleasure, having been forced into an unholy alliance with the leader of the nationalist New Zealand First Party, which holds the balance of power in the minority-riven Kiwi parliament.
While Mr Peters props up Ms Ardern’s Labour Party, which only secured 36.9 per cent of the vote in 2017, he is also the purveyor of policies. His points of view are totally at odds with the curated international image Ms Ardern has manufactured. He has also often been at the centre of political drama and scandal is never far from his reach.
Having called an election for September 19, Ms Ardern is being urged to climb down off the world stage and refocus on the business of government. Still personally popular with voters, her Labour Party trails the National Party in the most recent polls.
The New Zealand economy is in good shape but the wellbeing measures that Ms Ardern has built into the budget process are proving difficult to shift. Economic growth is tipped to exceed that of Australia but net government spending is on a steep upward curve into the future. And voters are seeking accountability.
A test will come on Friday in how Ms Ardern deals with questions about climate change policies when she meets Scott Morrison for talks in Sydney.
On a two-day visit to Fiji this week Ms Ardern was happy to talk up action on climate change. But she has promised to lower the temperature for her Australian talks. “Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Australia know New Zealand’s view; they can see what we’re doing on climate change,” she said. “But this idea that somehow me going in and wagging my finger is going to change another country’s domestic policy, I don’t think is an accurate representation of how any of us do politics.”
Mr Morrison says Australia is meeting its 2020 Kyoto targets and favours a technology target to reduce carbon emissions over a carbon-neutral pledge for 2050. New Zealand failed to meet its first round Kyoto targets, did not sign up to Kyoto for 2020 and is now making a big deal about going carbon-neutral by 2050 — but it is doing so by excluding its biggest emissions sector, agriculture.
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