Ardern attracts big crowd

About 1200 Labour Party supporters crowded into the Dunedin Town Hall to hear Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern address her first party conference as leader, and there was a surprise guest speaker – Ardern’s partner, Clarke Gayford.

Hundreds were turned away after queues stretched down the street for Ardern’s speech.

Gayford was the warm-up act before Ardern announced 600 extra teachers for children with learning problems.

Gayford referred to the ‘‘jubilant, joyful and positively infectious’’ mood at the conference after Labour was returned to power in 2017 after nine years in the political wilderness.

Ardern took over the leadership seven weeks out from the election and lifted Labour’s vote enough so it could negotiate a coalition deal with NZ First.

To huge applause, Ardern announced a boost to schools funding to allow an extra 600 teachers to focus on children with special learning and support needs. Ardern said the extra teachers would also free up classroom teachers to spend more time with other students.

Celebrated leaders

She also referenced celebrated Labour leaders Norman Kirk and Michael Joseph Savage.

Ardern referred to a famous interview with British broadcaster David Frost, when Kirk spoke about a woman who wrote to say thank-you for being able to afford a new pair of shoes.

Ardern drew parallels with the response to Labour’s families package, which boosted incomes for low to middle-income families through a mix of extra working for families payments, a boost to the accommodation supplement and best start payments for newborns. She read out a letter from a mother who said it allowed her to work one less cleaning job and spend more time with her children.

Another wrote that she had been able to buy warm sheets and new socks for her children.

But it was the fact people were going without these things that stood out, Ardern said. It showed more needed to be done.

‘‘There are still huge systemic problems that we all know we need to address.’’

Housing

She singled out housing as one of the biggest issues in terms of increasing family incomes through reducing costs – and launched a staunch defence of her Government’s housing policy, including KiwiBuild.

Her Government would be measured by its success in fixing the housing crisis and she welcomed that, Ardern said.

‘‘Already there are over 1200 more public housing tenancies than a year ago. In our last budget we funded 6400 more public homes and Housing NZ is investing $4 billion to not only build this new stock, but to renovate existing state houses.’’

Labour’s KiwiBuild programme – to build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 years – would also have a significant impact, Ardern said.

‘‘KiwiBuild will give thousands of young families who have been locked out of home ownership a chance to buy their own affordable home, not through a subsidy but through the Government using its scale and buying power to do what the market hasn’t. It’s an example of the Government seeing a problem, and fixing it. And that’s exactly what Michael Joseph Savage did.’’

Her speech also addressed the critics who said Labour wouldn’t be able to balance the books.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson had proved them wrong, Ardern said. ‘‘He has kept a firm grip on the country’s finances and he is focused on running surpluses.’’