An emotional day on the trail for Ardern
Emotions ran high at the Pike River Memorial as Jacinda Ardern reaffirmed Labour’s pledge to try to bring home the 29 men still trapped in the mine.
It’s the first time Ardern has visited since becoming leader and it didn’t pass without her making special mention of former leader Andrew Little, who had ‘‘been there right from the beginning’’ and stood by the families of Pike River.
The tone of Ardern’s day had been set early when she got some of the most aggressive protesting she’s seen on the campaign trail from a Nelson man at a Grey Power event. He demanded she answer questions about the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.
Police stepped in and told the man to calm down - he was quick to point out he’d put the same pressure on National leader Bill English when he visited.
It put a whiff of discontent in the air though, and not long after, Ardern changed from her usual ‘‘relentlessly positive’’ mood in a media stand-up to come down hard on English over his ‘‘lies’’ about Labour’s tax plans.
‘‘I’ve seen today a further ad which is full of lies and scaremongering, the New Zealand public deserve better than that. I will run an open, relentlessly positive campaign but they need to start running an honest one,’’ she said.
Clearly furious at the way the National campaign is attacking its tax policy, Ardern said she was ‘‘calling them out ... for campaigning on things that don’t exist’’.
Earlier, Ardern had used her own 85-year-old grandfather’s experience at Waikato Hospital on Tuesday night - he was asked to leave the full hospital at 11.30pm when he lived an hour’s drive away - as an example of how the current system under National wasn’t working.
She told the 600-strong audience at a Nelson Grey Power meeting that the health system was stretched and while she didn’t blame the hospital staff she said ‘‘underfunding’’ was responsible.
From there, Ardern travelled to Pike River, where the cold and dark rain clouds matched the sombre mood of the families there to welcome her.
The memorial is the closest thing the families have to a resting place for their sons, fathers, husbands and brothers, and Ardern was visibly overwhelmed by the enormity of the visit.
It was there that she reaffirmed Labour’s promise to ‘‘do the right thing’’ and in their first 100 days set up an agency that is focused on a re-entry into Pike River by 2018.
Pike River mother Anna Osborne told the gathered crowd they’d had ‘‘lies and broken promises’’ and it was time for a change of government to try to bring the men home and ‘‘get some peace’’.