Ardern rebrands with candidates

Jacinda Ardern didn’t really build the

Labour Party she leads.

No one person is responsible for a party of this size, but Ardern had less influence than most leaders. She was not leader when the list for the last election was built, and Labour have not brought in a single MP since that election through a byelection or retiring MP. It was the party Andrew Little built, not her.

Crucially this didn’t just mean the MPs themselves, but often their roles as well. It was not Ardern who gave David Clark – a man who clearly wants to be finance minister – the health portfolio while in opposition.

Ardern’s influence has begun to be felt. At Labour’s conference last year, when Ardern’s preferred candidate for the presidency of the party won the position. Claire Szabo – an Auckland NGO boss and crucially for the party at the time, a woman – won out over unionist Tane Phillips.

And now Labour have produced a party list to take the election with Ardern’s fingerprints all over it. The new MPs from 2017 have almost universally seen their fortunes sink, although some like Kieran McAnulty have risen.

The highly placed non-MPs, basically guaranteed a spot in Parliament, share a key attribute: They aren’t white men.

They are also often either lawyers, NGO higher-ups, or unionists, although Ardern seems less fond of them than Little was.

There’s human rights lawyer Vanushi Walters, union lawyer Camilla Belich, unionist and refugee Ibrahim Omer, lawyer Rachel Brooking, tax lawyer Barbara Edmonds, and consulting firm director Naisi Chen. (Ardern herself was once one of these highly-placed newcomers, back in 2008.)

This makes sense given white men currently make up more than half of Ardern’s top 12. Ardern herself said she wanted her influence on the list to make sure that Parliament itself looked a little bit more like the rest of New Zealand.

Ma¯ ori representation is, as ever, more complex.

There are still only two Ma¯ ori MPs in Ardern’s top 12. Newcomer Arena Williams did not win a high list placing – but with her selection in the safe seat of Manurewa that won’t be an issue.

Shanan Halbert, Labour’s candidate for the Northcote byelection, is way down the list at 52, but Labour’s stratospheric polling means that is probably a seat in Parliament.

The biggest headline from the list was the huge endorsement of public health expert Dr Ayesha Verrall, a familiar face during the Covid-19 crisis, who has the highest ranking of anyone not already in Parliament at 18. This is just one spot behind current health minister Clark, whose screwup during the lockdown saw Ardern demote him and make clear she would have fired him had their not been a pandemic on.

Some have assumed this means Verrall will be health minister come October, but this remains unlikely. It would be extraordinary for a new MP without serious executive experience to be handed a job as important as Health Minister right away.

It causes intra-party ructions and you never really know how someone will perform as a minister until they actually try. (Which isn’t to say Clark’s job is safe. )

Ardern’s list is unlikely to cause too much grumbling.

While MPs obsess over rankings, the main thing they obsess over is keeping a job and maybe being a minister one day, and given Labour’s huge polling lead right now the current caucus can breathe easy knowing they will probably have a safe job for a long while yet.