Five things for Labour to steady its listing ship

motorists, and that slow-moving cyclists actually inconvenience the ones who’re paying for the right to use the roads.

Find an enforcer

Ardern’s strengths include her warmth and relationship-building skills. That’s how Labour got the deal with NZ First across the line.

But she is lacking a ‘‘bad cop’’ to her ‘‘good cop’’. Clark could do good cop and bad cop simultaneously, but she also leant on the likes of Sir Michael Cullen, Annette King or her chief of staff, Heather Simpson, to deliver a dressing down when required.

Despite his affable exterior Key could also be the bad cop and his dressings down were legendary. But Key also had Steven Joyce, whose leadership ambitions ran up hard against the fact that he had slapped down too many of his colleagues to expect their support.

Labour is missing King, who would have fulfilled a similar role, and none of Ardern’s ministers have stepped up to fill the vacuum. They are too wrapped up in their portfolios and the thrill of being back in power. But their first priority should be too protect Ardern. And that means reining in NZ First and pulling weak ministers into line.

Less Woman’s Day, more The Economist

National is envious of Ardern’s soft media reach – she and partner Clark Gayford are everywhere on the women’s magazine stands, and in social media.

That’s inevitable in the life of any new leader, when the public appetite for getting to know more about them is insatiable.

But the demand for wall-to-wall soft media won’t lesson once Ardern gives birth, which is why over the next few months she should be prioritising media opportunities that focus on the job, rather than personality.

Be National-lite

Labour voters are of course chafing at the bit to see their agenda implemented after nine years in the wilderness. But they’re not going anywhere, unlike the soft voters in the centre who can just as easily flake off to National.

The Key Government’s first Budget defied National’s rightwing faction, who saw the global financial crisis as an opportunity for radical policies. Key and his Finance Minister Bill English instead enacted policies designed to support the lowest paid and most vulnerable through tough times. That element of surprise was carried through successive budgets, including the boost to beneficiary incomes for the first time in decades.

It wasn’t at the expense of National policies, but it helped make many of the so-called thirdrail policies under previous administrations more palatable, like asset sales.

Stop underestimating National

Labour was nearly sunk at the election by a clever campaign by National on taxes. Ardern is fighting the ghost of National’s 2017 campaign all over again after this week’s announcement about increasing the petrol excise. Labour is flailing to explain that its campaign manifesto promising no new taxes explicitly excluded excise taxes. And it points out that National also raised excise taxes each year while in power. But no one reads the fine print and explaining is losing. Labour should have made the case first.