JACINDA: VISION NOT ‘DEFINED’ BY COVID-19
New Zealand’s Labour Party campaign slogan “Let’s Keep Moving” is hardly the most inspirational, but reflects the conservative game plan – trade on the COVID response and stay on track.
Labour leader Jacinda Ardern describes the past three years - which have been dominated by disaster as “unexpected, many high points but many moments no-one could have anticipated”.
March 15th, Whaakari/White Island and the global pandemic will “feature heavily as defining experiences” in the history books, she said.
But she’s also “mindful of the obligation that we have to the people who put us here” to make sure “alongside of responding to those issues that we still keep and stay on track with the agenda we came to Parliament with”.
“So, yes. COVID-19 will predetermine a lot of what we debate this election, but voters still have a choice to make as to whether or not they continue with the plan that we have pitched or whether or not they choose to stop and move on to an alternate programme,” she said. She’s mounting the argument as the governing party, expectations of fresh, new policies during an election campaign should be lower. “The direction of an incumbent should never be defined by a mere six week programme because our job and our duty is to make changes when we have the opportunity, not to save them up merely for a political moment”.
Partly driving that is Labour has a lot of unfinished business because of what was not achieved by the coalition, including welfare reform, significantly reducing inequality and child poverty and big transport projects like Auckland light rail. COVID-19 also forced major spending programmes that were announced some months ago; they’ve sucked up vast amounts of money, but that doesn’t preclude the presentation of new ideas. Ms Ardern said Labour’s “vision has not been defined by a pandemic”, but she hopes it will be “accelerated” by one. “Building back better” has become the mantra.
She points out the coalition was able to pass close to 200 pieces of legislation with consensus; although only one indicator, she says that’s “a good sign of good faith between the parties and the role I play as the ‘glue’ in these relationships and that has been a large part of my job too”.