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© Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Chris Hipkins to be New Zealand's next prime minister
By NICK PERRY WELLINGTON, New Zealand©2025 GPlusMedia Inc.
30 Comments
RKL
Hipkins will do a better job than Ardern.
She messed up big on the Covid crisis, and ran NZ's economy into the ground.
Incredible to let that happen to a sparsely populated island nation.
Alongfortheride
Ardern stood down to avoid the embarrassment of being slaughtered at this years election. Best news NZ has had in years.
Hervé L'Eisa
One totalitarian out, a wannabe incoming...
master
feminists cry "misogyny" whenever a politician like Ardern isn't treated with kid gloves. Its a tacit acknowledgment that they think they should be excused from criticism. Because they're women.
What do they call it when another disaster politician like Trudeau gets vitriol many times greater?
As for Hipkins, good luck to him. Hes been left with one hell of a mess.
Toblerone
Smug, smarmy, the perfect Jacinda acolyte.
fxgai
The great Helen Clark.
She is right that such reflection would be useful.
From my perspective, the polarization stems from a lack of shared understanding of what we want from democracy.
Democracy should not be about a majority being able to force a minority into submission on some particular issue.
By and large, people should be free to live their lives as they wish. We should not be a borg, we should not be under the control of a central force like they are in places like… well, you know.
Democracy is what we fall back to in limited cases.
It is no surprise that people get pissed off when their freedom is infringed upon by others.
I would suggest that any vitriol towards the former Prime Minister might be because of the draconian lockdown approach she adopted, rather than a lack of an appendage between her legs.
Jimizo
44 a good age to become PM.
Ardern was close to a superstar around the world - the darling of some on one hand and endlessly triggering rightists on the other. Many of these people outside NZ would struggle to name another NZ PM.
Best to ignore both.
I have read some sensible evaluations of Ardern. Like most politicians, a mixed legacy.
I doubt that he will reach her heights of superstardom, but superstardom in politics isn’t always a measure of success.
Best of luck to him.
RKL
JimizoToday 12:26 pm JST
44 a good age to become PM.
Ardern was close to a superstar around the world - the darling of some on one hand and endlessly triggering rightists on the other. Many of these people outside NZ would struggle to name another NZ PM.
If you considered Ardern a superstar, well, maybe there are different standards in the UK for what constitutes a superstar, especially in light of recent leadership there..
New Zealand is an island country with a smaller GDP than the state of Alabama, and Ardern still couldn't handle the Covid crisis, and she let her country's economy go to the bottom of the barrel.
Maybe "darling" has a different nuance in the UK too?
fxgai
Well it seems the New Zealand economy is ok, but they have high inflation because they printed too much money, like others. Follow the rest style of approach. To be sure, I see a dearth of good leadership anywhere in recent years.
Strangerland
Good luck to him. I'll miss how much Adrern's name enraged the right-wingers of the world. He, being male, likely won't attract as much hatred, but if Trudeau has taught us anything, the right will still go off on men if they dislike them enough.
Adern was a great leader. She'll go down in world history as the best leader of the Covid pandemic of 2020, hands down, and literally no one in history will ever be able to deny it, as it is so irrefutable.
Haaa Nemui
Personally I still think if there’s anybody people should be livid at, it’s Winston Peters.
RKL
fatrainfallingintheforestToday 01:03 pm JST
More brains, though.
Yeah--they showed that through a PM that quit because she can't handle the job.
And yet she is still one of the most well-known and popular world leaders today.
Nah--she isn't known by name--just by failed policies.
And still influential and powerful enough to scare the hell out of the cowardly little internet bullies.
Nah--not influential at all, Pretty insignificant. No major country looks to her for advice.
Good luck to the new guy.
Surely he will be able to handle the position without abruptly quitting.
2020hindsights
jadefeldtophelia
That's a big part of it. That and she handled Covid in NZ remarkably well, and many hate that a woman was successful with the pandemic.
Jimizo
I think a lot of it is parroted from certain media.
They don’t think that deeply. It’s on the hymn sheet.
Any Kiwis here who are not consumed by partisanship or ideology who have a balanced view of her leadership?
She certainly achieved a higher international profile than any NZ leader in my lifetime.
Peter14
New Zealand was a better nation with her as PM. The nations profile was raised quite a bit thanks to her leadership and choices. Her opposition was certainly vociferous but they had no better solutions to those she came up with. I am sorry to see her go and hope the replacement can continue her policies and come up with some new ones of his own that improve things for New Zealand.
DudeDeuce
Well Kiwis in NZ can probably name every NZ PM and they are the ones that gave her a 30% approval rating of late. You can gloat how she is the greatest politician of all time but that doesn't mean the masses have to.
Alongfortheride
jadefeldtophelia
That's a big part of it. That and she handled Covid in NZ remarkably well, and many hate that a woman was successful with the pandemic.
Your obviously not from NZ. It has nothing to do with the fact she is a woman. Helen Clark and Jenny Shipley were both NZ Prime Ministers and both were well respected.
Adern is hated because she was only interested in creating hatred amount the different races in NZ and if you think she handled the Pandemic well then please ask the next 4 generations of children who will be repaying the debt what they and their parents think. The reason she bailed out has nothing to do with her personally, just she did not want the embarrassment of the coming polls in the election this year
fxgai
What were her policies?
I recall she put on a garment of the Muslim faith after that terrorist attack (not a policy), and she eventually flipped her draconian zero vivid policy, beating the Chinese to the punch.
What policies?
I think she got most kudos overseas because she was a young lady, had a baby while in office, but in terms of policy… what?
fxgai
Went googling for policy answers and came up with this from an Australian educator: https://unherd.com/2023/01/what-was-the-point-of-jacinda-ardern/
2020hindsights
fxgai
How would you compare her with John Key? What was his policies?
2020hindsights
Alongfortheride
jadefeldtophelia
That's a big part of it. That and she handled Covid in NZ remarkably well, and many hate that a woman was successful with the pandemic.
I live in NZ, and was living here during the pandemic. And Clark didn't face a pandemic, but overwhelmingly supported Jacinda.
She isn't hated by most NZers.
I don't understand your comment.
4 generations? Really? That's a 100 years. And how would you handle looking after people in a pandemic without spending money? What would you have done?
Yeah, right. You're entitled to an opinion, I guess.
dagon
Enjoying the right wing talking point echo chamber in the comments on Ardern.
More focused on identity than the "woke" contingent could ever be.
Socially responsible policies that focused on compensating workers as a pandemic response instead of business centered corporate bailouts was not a reason for her popularity.
It must have been because she was a woman, got pregnant, catered to the "woke".
Those talking about inflation and totalitarianism and hurting the economy must have loved the alt-right and neo-lib led country COVID responses where it was said to just be a mild flu, the immune compromised should just take one for the economy and corporate welfare subsidies and leaving the actual front line workers and those laid off resourceless while bailing out business and markets was a prudent approach.
RKL
Without scrolling to the top, I still can't come up with her name. Talk about an insignificant leader who accomplished nothing positive.
DudeDeuceJan. 21 05:31 pm JST
Well Kiwis in NZ can probably name every NZ PM and they are the ones that gave her a 30% approval rating of late. You can gloat how she is the greatest politician of all time but that doesn't mean the masses have to.
Very well put.
2020hindsightsJan. 21 06:58 pm JST
That's a big part of it. That and she handled Covid in NZ remarkably well, and many hate that a woman was successful with the pandemic.
Her Covid policy was a disaster. Which is why NZ death and infection rates reached an even higher level than Japan's, for example.
ClippetyClop
And yet you have commented multiple times about a person who you don't even know the name of. In fact you were the first person to comment on this article about a person whose name you pretend to not know.
And you expect us to believe this?
We get it. You don't like women doing jobs that you think only men should be doing.
Desert Tortoise
Based on New Zealand's most recent statistics for deaths caused by Covid-19, New Zealand's death rate per 100,000 population, hand calculated, is 50.53 (the JHU data shows 50.58). Singapore, with a slightly larger population has experienced 29.40 deaths per 100,000 population. Quite a few nations have even lower death rates but except for China, all of these are undeveloped or developing nations that have unreliable statistics (Benin, Chad, Niger, etc). China is reporting 1.31 deaths per 100,000 population but nobody believes that. DPRK reports only 1 confirmed case but somehow shows 6 confirmed deaths. Hmmm, did a cat get Covid and burn through six of its nine lives? The mind reels O_O
Btw, Japan shows 51.12 deaths per 100,000. Half of a tenth of a percent more than New Zealand. The Japanese have much to be proud of with their Covid response. I hand calculated Taiwan's rate since it is not published anywhere and they came in at 67.34 deaths per 100,000 population (16,038 total deaths as of Jan 23 on a population of 23,816,775).
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality
Gahan
Chippie Hipkins is a student union leader type. A career politician, hand-picked as a student (the same as Cindy was) and groomed for government. Whilst a capable leader of bureaucrats (so immediately better than Jacinda ever was). He is still part of the close knit group of Ardern followers who have been deceiving NZ for years over their legislative ambitions. With Labour as low as 25% in the most reliable polls this is an attempt by the party to emulate the hail mary approach that, whilst losing them the 2017 election, was able to put them in a position to allow Winston Peters to betray his supporters to further his own ambitions.
New Zealand is desperate for a change in government. The race-based attack on our democracy, the ongoing inflation crisis largely caused by Labour's excessive QE programme and the attacks on personal freedoms are a lot for people to forget. I haven't forgot... and I won't be voting for this clown.