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?

Just because I do not agree with you on this one particular aspect of her governance it does not mean I have “black and white thinking”, think Jacinda Ardern is a saint, believe she has never made a mistake (I do think she has made some mistakes, as do all Prime Ministers) or am being nasty by stating my opinion.

I won’t be engaging with you again as you are making a political discussion personal.

I am sorry you feel that way. Maybe you could channel Jacinda and show some kindness to those harmed by her mandates.

You’re still saying this, even after all the problems & side effects of the vaccine are being made public?
crazy.

I’m in NZ. I’m a Labour voter.

This was absolutely coming. Called it last year.

This is categorically not out of nowhere.

And I know, I know, it’s very easy to say that. Fact remains….

Inhumane mandates? That have now been dropped and that protected many many people through the pandemic. The mandates were at least clear and consistent and largely aimed at people who should have been community minded in their thinking. I admired Jacinda for sticking to her guns through that and for not engaging with the utter foolishness on parliament lawn.

And quite rightly you should, and it was.

we have gangs here organising under legal age children to ram raid bottle shops, local family corner stores and the like. The older ones break into cars and steal them for the kids to do this. In turn the goods are given to the older gang members and traded.

I won’t bore the forum too much with news links, you can find them for yourselves on Stuff and NZ herald and other news platforms. However recently a north island farmer, after boarding up his house except for the toilet window, was broken into again for the fourth time by the same local teenager and his girlfriend

the farmer was hit over the head with a wine bottle whilst in his own bed, and took steps in self defence to protect himself, however the teenager would not keep on the ground and still while waiting for the police to arrive. The farmers son became involved and the short story is the farmer ended up being charged with hurting the teenager and in court. The “services” are now working to try and prevent this “kid” from going after the farmer again. Just one story, but many more similar.

we’ve installed cameras for our rural property and I know others who have taken various measures to ensure their family’s safety.

I'm not saying it’s any better or worse than other countries, we certainly don’t have razor wire on our fences as some countries do (if you are on fb’ view from my window page you will know what I’m talking about) but violence and hostility has certainly increased here in recent years and nought is being done about it. Certainly not enough police to get around to deal with the crime either.

I’m SICK of people like you.

Here we go, the freedom fighters have arrived

I agree, and I also will be sad to see her go.

Good, she's a lunatic

@FlowersLucy people like me? Fully vaxxed labour voter? Wow. Well, you're gonna LOVE what national/act do to the place then.

@JustAMum2023 harmed by the mandates? I think you might have been listening to Chantelle Baker a bit too much. Who has no agenda of her own of course. 🙄. JA took advice from the Ministry of Health, took note of international research and agreed a way forward with the rest of the cabinet. They made a decision, set a way forward and stuck to their own rules. They were government mandates not JA mandates. I was covered by the mandate and I was happy to do my bit and protect the vulnerable people I work with. And it seems to have worked. So well done NZ government for being clear and consistent. Clarity, consistency, collaborative - JA led a great response to uncertain times And none of the poison that was spouted about her or her family came to anything. She stoically ignored it all. Good on her.

She says "there's nothing left in the tink".

As a Brit I can’t comment on anyone’s experience in NZ but just seeing a woman with a tiny baby and supportive male partner leading a nation on the world stage.. that has been so groundbreaking and will have attracted abuse far beyond what any man with a young family would ever get, making her job so much harder. I respect her for real public service and for showing leadership on a very personal level. The power of that representation she has shown is not tarnished and stands a bit apart from her political record and subsequent ups and downs of her career.

Her policies sound like they have saved thousands of people from death or long term illness. Covid is a very dangerous disease for a lot of people. All leaders make mistakes but Arden’s leadership sounds way better than having a self-serving, lying, corrupt, lawbreaking weathercock in a professional and personal moral vacuum like Boris Johnson in charge of anything in a crisis.

Good. Trudeau next.

I agree with a pp, good riddance indeed. Very good news.

Obviously don't know the ins and outs of NZ politics as live in the UK, but I'd take Jacinda any day over the corrupt, greedy, incompetent Tory PMs we've had to endure this past decade.
What is the press situation in NZ? Does Murdoch own any of the media? Does NZ have daily mail/ express/ sun/ telegraph equivalents with billionaire media barons controlling the narrative that the population then blindly follow?

Unfortunately women leaders in NZ face huge levels of misogyny. There was a farmers protest here where one was holding up a sign reading "We need a man to run the country", and while most would not be quite so open about it, there is a not insignificant number of people who believe men should be in charge of important things like business/economies.

Or another at an anti-vax rally who shouted into a loudspeaker (to cheers and claps) "No women is going to tell me what to do".

So, politics aside, she's also dealing with that.

Funny because she was being held up as the way everyone should govern.

Fair enough, it can't be an easy job and she seems to have done it well. Like she said , she knows what it takes to do the job.

Good point. Didn't Helen Clark go on to join the UN or somewhere like that in New York? I only vaguely remember as I lived in New Zealand at the time. I'm a little out of the loop on NZ politics.

I am in New Zealand too. Leaving her track record aside , the level of misogyny towards her was horrendous and can only be compared to what Julia Gillard experienced in Australia. I honestly don't understand female right wing supporters and, especially, politicians - e.g the fairly reasonable sounding Nicola Willis. Do they not see that?

Ooh, that kicked off.
All I know is that a lot of the NZ public messaging (tv and radio adverts) during lockdowns was very much "You MuST report your neighbours if they do wrong". The TV news would open with stories about people who violated social contact. It seemed very obsessive and Big Brother, and divisive. That's when I soured on JA.

NZers are saying they aren't surprised. Just a surprise to rest of world worried about other things.

I didn’t realise her popularity had dipped so much after the pandemic