In October 2020, the Labour Party and its leader Jacinda Ardern were so popular they broke the electoral system. MMP was designed to prevent the formation of majority governments; to impose coalitions and compromises on our political leaders. But in 2020, New Zealand had a world-beating Covid response and a prime minister who’d become a global icon.
Ardern symbolised anew, kinder approach to politics. The economy was strong and the National Party was weak: it spent that election year tearing itself to pieces, churning through leaders until they settled on one of its most divisive politicians: Judith Collins. A Roy Morgan poll in November 2020 found that 70% of the population thought the country was heading in the right direction.
When Ardern resigned just two years and two months later, her party averaged 30% across the publicly available polls: it had lost over half a million votes. Chris Hipkins replaced Ardern – the leadership contest was unopposed – and immediately announced a policy bonfire. He dumped (or in the case of Three Waters, rebranded) much of his own party’s legislative agenda. But this wasn’t enough. When the nation went to the polls last week, only 26.9% cast their vote for Labour, who lost an astonishing 28 seats on the provisional results, nearly halving its number in Parliament.
National has pledged to
