Leaders locked in battle of the babies

It may or may not have been a coincidence that Jacinda Ardern broke radio silence for the first time in nearly a month on the same day National Party leader Simon Bridges took to the stage with his own baby and young children for his first major speech to the National Party faithful.

There had been murmurs in National ahead of the weekend about whether Ardern would gatecrash Bridges’ big day.

But Ardern’s brief online message talking about her return to work in the next week or so still surprised some of them.

It was her first since a post celebrating the start of Labour’s families package on July 1.

National is resigned to the fact, however, that Bridges won’t get much oxygen in the first days after Ardern returns from maternity leave.

If anything, Ardern’s brief online appearance probably helped Bridges, reinforcing the fact we are in a new political era, the leaders of both major parties parents of young families, with all the accompanying concerns.

Bridges has been struggling to get traction as National Party leader up against not just a new Government, but a rock star prime minister whose pregnancy and birth of baby Neve captivated the nation.

That undercurrent ran through Bridges’ speech, in which he talked about wife Natalie and the pressures on her as a mum of three with her own successful career and business, and a husband who was away most of the week.

Bridges’ three children – 6-month-old Jemima, 4-year-old Harry and 6-year-old Emlyn – joined him and Natalie on stage.

Mostly that was for the benefit of the 600 or so National Party faithful who are still getting to know their new leader.

But it was also to reinforce that Bridges, like Ardern, is a next generation leader. That, of course, comes with an expectation that Bridges will bring not just a fresh face but fresh ideas and fresh energy.

That was why Bridges’ two big policy announcements during the conference focused on education, including a promise to train more teachers and smaller class sizes.

Bridges was still a young minister outside Cabinet when National made one of its biggest howlers in Government and announced a plan to cut teacher numbers. But he would not have been immune to the backlash that forced John Key to announce a U-turn. Using that experience to inform one of his first big policy speeches was a calculated move.

Bridges headed into the conference under pressure to improve his personal poll ratings, which have lagged well behind the party’s support, with National still polling in the low 40s, level pegging with Labour.

But that has limited Bridges’ options in moving too far ahead of the party.

Key’s very visible return to the party for the first time since his resignation as leader was a visible push to the party faithful to move on. If Bridges can bring them a return to the rock star poll ratings that Key used to claim, they probably will.

But there may not be room for two rockstar politicians at the moment.