Jacinda Ardern exit highlights social schism

By Jane Patterson, Political Editor

Power Play - Jacinda Ardern was as polarising upon her departure as she was during her time as Prime Minister.

She provokes extreme reactions: love and adoration to outright hatred.

That polarisation has become a corrosive feature of political debate in New Zealand and threatens to worsen as anger is allowed to trample over healthy and respectful debate.

In her valedictory to a packed parliamentary chamber, Ardern sought to remind people of the traits that propelled her towards stardom: empathy, her lofty aspirations, and of course the oft-discussed intention to bring kindness to politics.

These were traits that set her apart in the minds of both her critics and her admirers.

"You can be anxious, sensitive, kind and wear your heart on your sleeve. You can be a mother, or not, an ex-Mormon, or not, a nerd, a crier, a hugger - you can be all of these things, and not only can you be here - you can lead."

Ardern and her majority Labour government can rightly be criticised for failing to deliver on many of her enormous promises and ideas.

She sought to put context around those issues so integral to her as an MP and political leader:

"There are very few things I aspired to do in politics that have a natural end point - poverty, inequality, ending environmental degradation - if you ever claim it's job done on those issues, you set the bar too low," she told Parliament.

"Politics has never been a tick list for me. It's always been about progress. Sometimes you can measure it, and sometimes you can't."

Overseas, Ardern is best known and revered for her response to the March 15 mosque attacks, a tragedy she says left her feeling "bereft". But in 2022, as she embarked on a whirlwind tour of overseas visits, the clear disconnect between her domestic and international profiles became increasingly apparent.

Her clear and unifying message during the first Covid-19 wave became waffly and patronising as the years drew on; the exposure she gained from the interminable appearances at the podium helped cement Labour's majority win, but eventually turned people against her.

"A valedictory is not a place to summarise a pandemic. No one has the time for that kind of group therapy," Ardern said.

"There is no question it was an incredibly tough experience for our nation at the bottom of the world, and I will concede, a tough experience personally."

Ardern's legacy cannot be fairly examined without mention of the abuse directed her way, rising to a crescendo as the pandemic pressed more and more heavily on the ties that bind New Zealand society.

Like other leaders around the world, the pandemic response and the disparate impact it had on different parts of the community ate away at tolerance and goodwill. Ardern was the figurehead most closely associated with the Covid-19 restrictions, but the public attitude was also laced with a level of misogyny and hatred no other New Zealand prime minister has had to face.

Helen Clark suffered invidious and often strategic sexism, while John Key was subject to persistent and baseless rumours, but Ardern dealt with vitriol, violence and an intensity of abuse on another level.

It escalated online, but by the end of last year it had reached a point where people were openly yelling abuse at her in public. The threats to her and her family had intensified and security was stepped up majorly - the public antipathy among some represented starkly by the ghoulish images wishing her harm displayed for weeks on the lawn of Parliament.

Ardern recounted a trip to Whanganui, where she was supposed to visit a vaccine bus. The event was delayed due to protest but she returned a few hours after her scheduled arrival.

"There was one lone protester still in the vicinity, who as I left started shouting at me. They were mostly focused on a particular conspiracy that was completely false. So I stopped, doubled backed and told them that.

"I was idealistic enough to believe it would make a difference. But after many of these same experiences, and seeing the rage that often sat behind these conspiracies, I had to accept I was wrong. I could not single-handedly pull someone out of a rabbit hole.

"But perhaps collectively we all have a role to play in stopping people falling in in the first place."

The great pity is the effect this has had on political debate in this country - the various parties retreating to their corners, their beliefs fuelled by emotion and often misinformation; those who disagree are the enemy, rather than someone who just holds a different opinion. It has divided friends, families, work mates and all signs point to it getting worse, not better.

New Zealand has been coming through the pandemic with a low excess mortality rate compared to other countries.

However, that came at great sacrifice, and with the second year of the pandemic and the arrival of vaccinations and mandates, the tide turned. Hostility initially came from small but vocal groups, but seeped into the wider population as the cost of the living and global uncertainty increasingly fed voter discontent.

Ardern was savvy enough to recognise she was the flashpoint for much of it and that it had passed the point where she could rein it in. Her successor Chris Hipkins has made no bones about distancing both his style and policy programme from Ardern's regime and is being rewarded - for now - in the polls.

While the intensity of the opposition has eased - quite incredible given he played such an integral role in the Covid-19 response - society and the political environment have changed forever, and Hipkins has not seen the end of it.

Hipkins says he "absolutely hopes that people will leave [Ardern] alone and let her get on with her job".

"Those who are on the fringes, who perhaps haven't always respected Jacinda or the office that she held, I would hope that they would back off now as well," he said.

Ardern now picks up where she left off in politics, appointed as Special Envoy for the Christchurch Call, and as a trustee of the Prince of Wales' environment award the Earthshot prize, with these parting words:

"Debate is critical to a healthy democracy but conspiracy is its nemesis.

"The answers aren't easy, but having witnessed what it can do to corners of my own beloved country, when perhaps we considered ourselves immune, I can tell you they are answers I will keep looking for."