The New Zealand prime minister was lauded for her handling of the Christchurch massacre and climate issues. But she faces a stiff test to meet pledges on affordable housing and Māori rights

Highs



Handling of Christchurch massacre

Ardern’s response to the terrorist attack on two Christchurch mosques that killed 51 people was praised around the world; her face was painted onto buildings, she became a household name in the Muslim world, and she was discussed as a potential winner of the Nobel peace prize.

Her words urging compassion and peace, and reassuring the Muslim communities targeted in the shootings, seemed to stand in stark contrast to anti-immigrant sentiment in other western nations. Six days after the attacks, Ardern pledged to outlaw most semiautomatic weapons in New Zealand and it was made into law less than a month after the attacks, voted for by every New Zealand parliamentarian bar one.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Flowers and tributes displayed in memory of the twin mosque massacre victims outside the Botanical Gardens in Christchurch on March 29, 2019. Photograph: Sanka Vidanagama/AFP/Getty Images

It was the standout moment of her prime ministership. But survivors and the wider Muslim community are facing ongoing physical, financial, mental health, and safety issues and the nation faces a lengthy trial for the man accused of the attacks and an inquiry into whether they could have been prevented. So Ardern may be forced to address some of the ugliest aspects of the 15 March attacks ahead of this year’s election.

The zero carbon bill

The government’s push to enshrine its Paris climate change targets into law boasted cross-party support – the centre-right, opposition National party voted for it – and a plan to tax farmers for their emissions from 2025, or earlier if they are not making progress on reductions. The climate change minister and Green party co-leader, James Shaw, was the policy’s architect. But Ardern made headlines for decrying a lack of global action on climate change in speeches at the United Nations and at the Pacific Islands Forum, which was attended by many of the leaders whose island nations are most at risk from rising sea levels.

Banning plastic bags

Ardern has said the greatest number of letters she received from children early in her time as prime minister urged her to ban plastic bags. She did, and the government is enacting its next phase of its war on single-use plastic, including impending bans on meat trays, cups and takeaway food containers.

Sexual and domestic violence laws

In 2018, a new law brought by , the Green party allowed victims of domestic violence to take 10 days of paid leave from work, on top of their regular holiday entitlements. The government passed a law making strangulation a separate offence to regular assault. It also pledged to make solutions to family violence holistic, multi-agency responses.

New Zealand history and climate change education

All 11-14 years olds will have the opportunity to learn about climate change activism and eco-anxiety, among other things, after an optional curriculum was introduced this month. The government also won plaudits for pledging New Zealand history would be compulsory in schools by 2022. Māori and colonial history is not widely known by New Zealanders. Ardern also made global headlines for pledging that her daughter, Neve, would learn te reo Māori, the Indigenous language – and one of the country’s official languages.

Action on refugees

New Zealand’s refugee quota will increase to 1,500 from 1,000 in 2020, Ardern announced in 2018. The government in 2019 reversed a rule that restricted refugees from Middle Eastern and African nations from settling in New Zealand unless they could prove family connections to the country, something that was difficult to do and which policy advocates described as racist.

Lows

Failing to fire on KiwiBuild

Stories about a rising tide of homelessness and families sleeping in cars flooded the media ahead of the 2017 election. The suggestion by Labour that nine years of a neoliberal, National-led government had made housing unaffordable for first-time buyers and some of New Zealand’s most vulnerable people was a central part of Ardern’s campaign.

But two and a half years on, its flagship KiwiBuild policy – a plan to build 100,000 new houses in 10 years, in collaboration with the private sector – has been “reset” with new goals after failing to generate the number of new houses the government promised, and with a new minister in charge.

Labour must also face a social housing waiting list that has reached new peaks, unaffordable rents in the major cities, and the criticism by some analysts that it should have implemented a capital gains tax to cool off the market for first home buyers.

On housing, Labour has been hobbled by New Zealand’s three-year election cycle: faced with a huge shortfall in the number of houses, it was never going to solve the problem between 2017 and 2020. But most commentators agree the government massively over-promised and under-delivered.

Labour party sex scandal

Ardern has been seen as an inspiration for women worldwide so it was a blow to her party’s image when Labour was rocked by sexual assault allegations from a party member against a staffer. The party’s president resigned over the scandal. An independent lawyer’s report months later found “insufficient evidence” against the staffer. Labour had earlier faced a scandal when young attendees at a camp for its youth wing alleged sexual misconduct and assault by a fellow attendee.

Oranga Tamariki’s record with Māori children

A video of social workers’ attempts to take a newborn baby from his mother stoked outrage in New Zealand, and led to calls for the social work agency Oranga Tamariki to be disbanded. Six out of 10 children in care are Māori. An inquiry found major blunders were made in the case. Ardern and Tracey Martin, the minister for children, were criticised for saying they would not watch the video that generated the outcry.

Jury is out …

Standoff at Ihumātao site

Ardern was in 2019 criticised for inaction over a Māori land occupation at Ihumātao, where groups within the same iwi, or tribe, are conflicted over the sale of ancestral land to property developers. Her government has since been involved in attempting to help broker a solution to end the standoff although no announcement has been made yet.

Tying new policy to wellbeing

The government generated global headlines when it announced its first wellbeing budget in 2019, with all new spending proposals intended to be collaborative between agencies and tied to wellbeing markers. The government will be scrutinised at 2020’s budget about whether it results in more compassionate and life-improving policy. Watch out, too, for the government’s record on child poverty being tested in an election year: it is an issue dear to Ardern’s heart, and one on which advocates, including the children’s commissioner, have criticised her progress to date.

The success of pledges on mental health

An at times chaotic mental health system, and high suicide rate were behind pledges by Ardern ahead of the 2017 election that she would pay proper attention to mental health if she became the prime minister. A major inquiry into mental health made 40 recommendations for change, and the government accepted 38 of them; in 2020, Ardern will be expected to deliver solutions for a cash-strapped and overworked sector struggling to meet demand.