To any New Zealanders on Mumsnet...

[Aridane]

Is Jacinda Ardern as charismatic, compassionate and effective as a PM (and well liked) in New Zealand as she appears in news reports outside of New Zealand?

Only 40 years old and a woman!

Her landslide victory would imply that. (not a kiwi)

Though she ‘only’ one 49% of the vote - which is apparently a landslide

Yes, she is. I’ve met her a number of times I’ve the past few years - not since she became PM, but in the immediate years before when she was a local politician.

She is genuinely nice. What you see on tv is definitely real, she’s very invested in wanting to help people and for the greater good.

There is a lot of negative noise around her, but ‘tis the nature of politics. The die hard blues will bang on about policy and the economy, but sometimes you need a bit more than that.

Quite frankly, the fact that I’ve just been able to attend a 40,000 people international rugby match is down to her decisions, enabling us in NZ to have a relatively ‘normal’ life at the moment. I’ll take it.

@Aridane

Though she ‘only’ one 49% of the vote - which is apparently a landslide

We have a proportional representation electoral system, with a reasonably high threshold of the vote needed to get into Parliament. So being able to form a Government without assistance from another party unusual - in fact this is the first time since 1996 when we introduced MMP.

But yes, she is genuinely lovely (speaking from personal experience).

I think the next biggest party got 25% ish of the vote. Our own governments usually get about a third of all votes cast. So 49% is huge by any measure.

@FenceFuckery Totally jealous if you were at the Bledisloe Cup game 😁

She is a lovely, genuine person (have met her)

However, I don't think she has been effective at all.

She promised 100,000 new affordable homes, think they build a few hundred. She promised light rail in Auckland (was meant to be being built now) and nothing has happened. Child poverty has not decreased.

I certainly am happy she has been re-elected but now she really will have to deliver. Covid reponse has given her a free pass.

@FlatandFabulous in a corporate box no less

@brushandmop I’m not forgiving her for anything here, but she’s been thrown a number of curveballs that has somewhat hindered progress.

A terror attack, a volcanic eruption, and then the small matter of a global pandemic? No government in this small country would have been able to push through nearly as much as they would want with all that to contend with as well.

@FenceFuckery Ooh fancy 😁 I watched it in a pub in Sydney. I know I should be cheering for my adopted country (I'm Irish/Australian) but the All Blacks play such beautiful rugby that I can't help being happy when they win (sorry for post hijack op).

I think the fact she appears ‘normal’ does things like queues up with her family for dinner at a restaurant. There have been many reports of her just mixing in when not on ‘duty’. Mind you NZ doesn’t have the icky class structure/system like the UK.

She appears to listen to her advisors. She took loads of flack for being pregnant in office and shock horror giving birth in office ( even here I heard some very misogynistic comments, many were truly shocking) but she rose above it. She also tends not to get into mud slinging/ personal attacks.

On another note there was a small piece in the news today about how her partner’s ( main carer for Neve) biggest worry last night was whether Neve would sleep at the right time so they could leave for the house for Jacinda’s election night speech.

It does have to be noted that the main opposition has a woman in charge who is Anne Widdecombe ish. Was cast into political Siberia for a few years due to ‘amnesia’ over her and her husbands business dealings and she was the third leader of the opposition in 6 months.

Saying that I’m delighted, discussed it with the Uk family this morning -and didn’t rub it in at all-

She does across as simply nice, normal and lovely - but didn’t know if it was just spin. Or whether I was benchmarking her against Boris

I think she seems great but some pre life people on my FB are lambasting her for new abortion legislation.

She seems to have this weird idea that being a good person and doing her best to do a good job, might be the way to go.

A fairly novel concept, at the moment, it appears.

She knows that she's up against it, for her next term, there has to be good progress made on her manifesto aims and promises. It sounds like she is looking to go into coalition, which will strengthen the parliamentary majority, if she goes in with someone sympatico. Of course, the dinosaur that is NZ First and Winston Peters, is comprehensively out, which will somewhat change the political landscape, although ACT got more seats, which is a worry, and needs to be looked at, as to why.

And of course, it has to be set in the context of the economy, which is in recession, though still in much better shape than many other countries, and the ongoing Covid restrictions and obstacles.

(My favourite story from the election is where Clark Gayeford, her partner, went out to feed the onlookers, supporters, and journo's with fried fish that he'd caught, and venison patties, that he'd hunted. . .)

Oh, and I LOVE the fact that she is modernising, liberalising, and decriminalising our abortion legislation!

I do understand that those who would prefer to be able to mind other people's uteruses find this immensely upsetting however. I just really don't care.

@Ginger1982

I think she seems great but some pre life people on my FB are lambasting her for new abortion legislation.

There’s a lot of mis-information about the legislation that came in at the beginning of this year, being spread around social media. Basically it decriminalised abortion in NZ.

It was also a conscience vote in our Parliament.

Blimey - abortion was illegal in NZ?

@Aridane

Blimey - abortion was illegal in NZ?

Technically. It required two doctors to sign off that it was necessary for a women's mental, physical health, yah di yah di yah. The relevant legislation was contained within the Crimes Act. In the 1970's, it was extremely hard to get an abortion (that is a huge part of why I'm here, lol).

However, by the '90's, while you still had to jump through the hoops, which could be most unpleasant, in most cases if you wanted/needed an abortion, it was possible to access one, unless you encountered a real anti-choicer of a doctor. Of course, this could be made more difficult by geographical remoteness.