Jacinda Ardern is resigning!

[MrsMarkRonson]

Didn't see that coming?! I know her popularity has dipped somewhat, but I didn't think she'd leave before the election? wondering if she was being pushed out?

We will no doubt end up with a National government as too many people are stupid enough to think Jacinda Ardern personally created the housing crisis, the pandemic and the global recession and Christopher Luxon can miraculously single-handedly fix them. In 3-5 years everyone will be making a variation of the same complaints about him, but milder, as he is A Man.

"Yeah if you are the leader of a party in government, months from an election, where the votes for that party in that forthcoming election will of course be based to a very great degree on your performance as prime minister, then yes of course you should have the balls to stick it out to the conclusion. Not say whoops guys this doesn’t seem to be going my way now, I’ve had enough catch you later! You guys all spend a couple of months trying to find a new leader, who will have to answer for my record in government despite not being responsible for it, and best of luck trying to win (you won’t win). For goodness sake, what kind of leader does that."

Talk about simplifying it to primary school level politics 🙈🤣

I'm surprised at lawlessness - always imagined NZ as a quiet and peaceful country!

What’s your take Socrates?

For goodness sake, what kind of leader does that.

A leader who understands that the current political mood is vitriolically poisonous towards her personally and it's a handicap for the party she represents, and standing down will give a new leader a chance to shift the conversation away from personal attacks and towards policies, giving them a greater chance of winning the election.

@Eyerollcentral what's your take? And why do you keep popping up and arguing with me on every thread? bizarre behaviour.

I'll leave MN now, probably when I come back you'll have either been kicked off or sobered up. So very strange

I'm surprised at lawlessness - always imagined NZ as a quiet and peaceful country!

By and large it is but some people would have you believing that you will be knifed for your handbag if you set foot on a city street after 4pm.

Err sorry to be awks babe but you commented on my post, do you not remember? It was only a few mins ago.

Unreal that realisation has just dawned now, her personal rating has been dipping for some time. Will be interesting to see how much notice her colleagues who have to pick up the pieces have had of this decision. A party in government after two terms is always going to struggle for re-election. Having to fish a new leader now from a shallow pool is going to be difficult and if more than one person stands potentially divisive. That’s not a good look with an election looming.

Jacinda’ s led our country through some of the most tumultuous years most of us can remember. She’s done it with humility, steadfastness and kindness. To level NZ’s social problems at her door is easy and ridiculous in even measure. I’m not a political person, goodness knows who will step up and replace her, but I’d also like to echo Mr Luxtons words and send thanks and best wishes to her and her family as they face a new chapter in their lives.

@Eyerollcentral I don't think that realisation has 'just dawned now' but equally, politicians can go from zero to hero and back again in a matter of months. I'm sure everyone who is a politician as their job has a reasonable understanding of the rollercoaster nature of the beast.

I don't think Labour's pool of talent is short at all ... Grant Robertson not putting his hat in the ring is a bit disappointing but Chris Hipkins is a strong contender if Grant is his deputy.

I'm not too surprised, thought the last couple of interviews I saw she gave off an 'I'm over this shit' vibe. I have voted for her but found it frustrating they didn't use their majority to more effect. Overall she's been good given what she was faced with in terms of crisis.

I think Luxon is ok, though of course when/if he gets in everyone will start blaming him instead of Labour for everything wrong in the world. To be fair as a woman she copped far worse than he ever will.

Very happy to see her go, she doesn't stand a chance of winning the next election. She is the worst thing to ever happen to NZ, those imhumane mandates have done irreparable harm. Now NZ stands to get shafted further with National/Act getting in.

She is the worst thing to ever happen to NZ

I don't know, I reckon the Hatepe eruption, every war NZ has ever been involved in, the 1918 pandemic, the 2020 pandemic and even the Christchurch mosque attack could all make a pretty good case for themselves.

What harm is that - please enlighten us? She did what she had to do to keep people alive. Anti vaxxers didn't like it, tough titty. She has saved literally tens of thousands of lives.

We’ll probably have to agree to disagree on this point. I think if you are a leader, barring a major scandal, if you are within a year of an election and you abandon ship you must expect that there will be an assumption made by many voters that you are saving yourself. Jacinda is an unusual prime minister in that her parliamentary career has been very short. Her first term was in coalition and in her second term she had a massive bounce. It’s almost impossible to maintain that momentum, esp in light of the last few years, but in my opinion by going now Jacinda is leaving the party very vulnerable and no I don’t think in the context of her career it reflects very well on her as a party leader. If Labour aren’t going to win in October, they aren’t going to win, but I think it’s handing her successor a poisoned chalice to take over at this point.

Not a kiwi but in NZ on holidays at present. Me and DH had a ‘what’ moment when we heard it on the news heading to wellington. Admire her greatly, i think she handled the pandemic so well and kept her people as safe as she could. Also her response to the Christchurch mosque shooting was admirable. From what i gather, talking to kiwis on our travels, she went before she was pushed. A sad end to a remarkable leader imho

I think it’s handing her successor a poisoned chalice to take over at this point.

LOL okay, maybe this slaughtering horse with a mere seven months to prepare for the election can get some tips from Judith Collins, who just zoomed back up National's ranks in their reshuffle this week, after she was given a poisoned leadership chalice just checks notes three months before a general election, right after her predecessor, Todd Muller (also zooming back up the ranks) handed back his own poisoned chalice, having been appointed to the leadership checks notes five months before a general election.

National was in absolute chaos this time 2.5 years ago, now people are bigging them up as the only safe way to get through a recession and 'fix the country'.

As the saying goes, a week is a long time in politics.

@CheekyHobson those examples, people rallied around and supported each other. Jacinda actively encouraged people to turn against each other. Those mandates were immoral. I'm not anti vax, I took the jab, but I've seen first hand families and communities fall apart due to the mandates. The vax arrived to late to even work effectively. It was a pointless exercise. The original lockdowns were effective in the beginning, THAT's what saved lives, not the vax. She took it too far, thinking we could escape the impact of covid

@FlowersLucy the mere fact that your happy to sneer tough titty and call me an anti vaxxer, when I'm fully vaxxed, is a perfect example of how she created division. Not very"kind" of you, is it?

Jacinda Ardern is a politician, not a saint. As such, the people of her country should be allowed to disagree with her policies . I'm a lifelong labour voter, and this idolisation of Jacinda is ridiculous.

those examples, people rallied around and supported each other
As most people did during Covid

Jacinda actively encouraged people to turn against each other
Untrue, her consistent message was that people were not the problem the virus was the problem and people should 'be kind to each other', which was mercilessly mocked by those who were anti-vax

I've seen first hand families and communities fall apart due to the mandates
The fallouts in families and communities (which I've seen in my own too) were caused by rigid, short-term, black-and-white thinking, intolerance and dramatising, not the mandates themselves.

The vax arrived to late to even work effectively
Utterly untrue and as an immune-compromised person who was holding out for the arrival of vaccines, I find this deeply offensive

The original lockdowns were effective in the beginning, THAT's what saved lives, not the vax.
I'm not even going to argue this because every professional health organisation in the world disagrees with you

She took it too far, thinking we could escape the impact of covid
It wasn't too far as we did escape the worst impacts of covid

I'm surprised at lawlessness - always imagined NZ as a quiet and peaceful country!

We have a very strong gang culture here which has been allowed to escalate over the last few years, and is now causing problems as each try to 'control' their areas. There are definitely no go areas as there are everywhere, drug use is widespread and the police are rather thin on the ground. We emigrated here in 2003 and the change is very noticeable.

@CheekyHobson I am also immune compromised, as is one of my children. The vax was ineffective and just gave asymptomatic kiwis the confidence to go out and spread it.

The nastiness has come largely from st jacindas followers. Yourself, for example.

Where exactly have I been nasty? Or do you regard someone having an opinion different from your own as being nasty?

@CheekyHobson I'm all in favor of people having differing opinions. As I said earlier in the thread, I'm a life long labour voter who is fully vaxxed and am gutted to see Jacinda hand the country over to National. It is you who sees things in black and white and is utterly rigid in your thinking when it comes to to st jacinda. She 100% made mistakes.