The rise of Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins
Their leadership and political views may be miles apart, but Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins were shaped by upbringings only a tractor ride apart. Aaron Leaman reports
OnMiah Judd’s bedside table sits one of her most treasured possessions. It’s a photo, set in a white wooden frame, and captures the moment five-year-old Miah met Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
The pair came together outside the gates of Morrinsville College, in early September, the weekend before political parties hit reset on their election campaigns.
As Ardern chatted to those outside the school, Miah stepped forward to talk, only for shyness to steal her voice. CuemumNicole Bellman.
‘‘I told Jacinda Miah’s name and said she was her biggest fan,’’ Bellman says.
Miah became fascinated with Ardern during the country’s level 4 lockdown when the nation would tune in daily for the primeminister’s televised Covid-19 updates.
‘‘Miah loves Jacinda because she’s kind,’’ Bellman says.
‘‘That’s a big thing for me too, as a parent, that people show kindness.’’
Ardern was at her former college to open a new performing arts centre and used the opportunity to talk about her love of the arts, the importance of culture, and her enduring pride in her hometown – and in her school.
Coming from a small Waikato school should never be viewed a barrier to achievement, she told students.
‘‘I can assure you, you have no less a chance of ... doing exactly what you dream of, and even things you don’t dream of, because I never dreamt of being prime minister, and yet here I am.’’
A politician returning to their childhood stomping ground is seldom the apogee of an election campaign, but it can give a unique insight into the tale of a hometown girl or boy made good.
For an area which claims to have more cows per hectare than anywhere else in the world, and with a reputation for being a National Party stronghold, Morrinsville is nonetheless quick to embrace the progressive Labour prime minister as one of its own.
Ardern’s appointment as Labour leader in 2017 heralded a dramatic change in fortunes for the party, described by some as the Jacinda effect.
And while only a Labour optimist would suggest Ardern could single-handedly turn the electorates of heartland New Zealand red this election, her Waikato connection is a source of parochial pride.
‘‘Don’t getmewrong, this is a National stronghold, but nevertheless people generally in the community are very, very proud of her and all that she’s achieved,’’ says John
Inger, long-serving principal of Morrinsville College.
Inger served as deputy principal and principal during Ardern’s time at the college and remembers her as a standout studentwith a gift for debating and public speaking.
At the end of her final year at the college, in 1998, Ardern’s Year 13 peers named her most likely to become prime minister.
Born in Hamilton in 1980, Ardern spent four years living in Hamilton’s Dinsdale suburb before shifting to Murupara with her older sister Louise, her father Ross, a policeman, and mother Laurell.
Later the familymoved toMorrinsville when Ardern’s parents bought an apple and nashi orchard from her grandparents. Laurell Ardern also worked at the cafeteria at Morrinsville College.
Ardern’s memories of school holidays include working in the orchard, pruning, picking and grading fruit. It’s here Ardern also learnt to ride amotorbike and operate aMassey Ferguson tractor.
‘‘My parents had a very strong work ethic. The fact that theywere both working while trying to keep the orchard going ... it was all hands on deck,’’ the 40-year-old recalls.
At high school, Ardern’s political views were not often shared by her peers.
‘‘I do think that shapedme because I was used to being the alternate view in the room and not havingmany people agree withme,’’ she says.
‘‘It always meant that I approached debates and discussions in a really respectful way, knowing that Iwould probably be aminority view most of the time.’’
Yet Ardern isn’t the only political leader this election who can lay claim to a Waikato pedigree.
National leader Judith Collins has also been quick to remind people of her deep connections to the region during campaign visits.
Born inHamilton in 1959, Collins was the youngest of six children, and grew up on a dairy farm in Walton, north-west of Matamata.
She attended Walton School, Matamata Intermediate School, and Matamata College where she excelled in English and history, and won cups for speech-making.
Like Ardern, Collins showed an early talent for debating.
After-school jobs involved working on the family farm with her father Percy and helpingmumJessie with cooking and housework.
Speaking at aWaikato Chamber of Commerce function in August, Collins recalled returning to the family farm from university one year. The time away had, in her own words, turned her ‘‘a little bit posh’’.
‘‘Mymother came in from the cow shed and, my goodness, the cow manure smell was quite strong. I looked all funny, and she said ‘why have you screwed up your nose?’ I said ‘Mum, it smells’, and she looked at me, and she said ‘that’s the smell of money, Judith, and don’t you ever forget it’.
‘‘Well, that put me in my place, didn’t it. So you think I’m tough, you should havemet my Mum.’’
Collins initially studied at the University of Canterbury before transferring to the University of Auckland and completing qualifications in law and taxation studies.
She was elected to Parliament in 2002, winning the seat of Clevedon and then Papakura from 2008 onwards.
But it’s her Waikato upbringing the 61-year-old says was fundamental in shaping her approach to life and leadership.
‘‘I think it’s got a lot to do with growing up on a farm and ... learning to be selfsufficient, alwayswanting to be able to do everything that you need to get done, just in case someone doesn’t do it.
‘‘I don’t mind at all having people say ‘oh you shouldn’t do that’ or this is different, orwhatever, that’s fine. But the one thing they know about me is that if I say this is x, this iswhere we’re going, they understand that’s the way we’re going.’’
Collins secured the National leadership in July, making her the party’s third leader in less than two months.
While critics dismissed Collins’ appointment –and that of Gerry
Brownlee as her deputy – as symptomatic of a party lacking fresh ideas, Collins embraced the challenge of defeating a popular primeminister with an outsized international profile.
Presenting herself as a clear-eyed leader, Collins regularly cloaks herself in the language of strength and experience.
She also speaks and acts with conviction, reckons National Hamilton East MPDavid Bennett.
‘‘She’s passionate about what she wants to see happen for New Zealand, and she’s a strong fighter,’’ he says.
‘‘I think she’s extremely relatable because of her country background. She’s a farmer’s daughter, she knows hard work, she knows what it is to be straight up with people. There’s a no nonsense approach to just getting the job done.’’
Few New Zealanders are more qualified to talk about leadership and the rigours of political life than Jim Bolger, who served as primeminister from 1990 to 1997.
The former National leader grew up in coastal Taranaki and credits his rural upbringing for fostering his sense of realism.
Growing up in a farming family, such as Collins did, is vastly different to being raised in a family that has the ‘‘assured income of a police officer’’, Bolger says.
‘‘You had to be pragmatic because you didn’t control all the inputs in agriculture, most notably the weather and internationalmarkets.’’
Despite the differences in Ardern’s and Collins’ upbringings, neither woman comes from a privileged background. The lack of a privileged class, a group who regard leadership as a birth right, remains a worthy feature of New Zealand society, Bolger says.
‘‘It’s an identifier of New Zealand that we can still get people from modest backgrounds, modest societies, who rise to the top, and I think that’s a huge plus.’’
The fact political leaders still emerge from rural communities and small towns is also a testament to New Zealand’s education system, says three-term Labour primeminister Helen Clark.
Her list ofWaikato political high achievers includes Margaret Wilson, who grew up in Morrinsville and became the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Dame Marilyn Waring, who grew up in Taupiri and became aNationalMP at age 23.
Clark herself was raised in Te Pahu, a ruralWaikato community south-west of Hamilton. Her time spent overseas heading the United Nations Development Programme served to reinforce to her the importance of education.
‘‘Without education, it’s very, very difficult to achieve your dreams, and what theNew Zealand public school system did for all of us was give us that chance,’’ Clark says.
‘‘You can take that chance or you can throw it away. But if you’re prepared to take it, it will set you up to follow your dreams and that’s thewonderful thing about New Zealand. I think it’s a very precious thing about New Zealand to keep, that quality of education experience regardless of where you live. To have that is what can launch you on your way.’’
Ardern and Collins contend the opportunities available to them growing up in Waikato are still available to young New Zealanders. Both women also benefited from having self-belief instilled in them from a young age.
‘‘I think that was the very best thing I had ... apart from being born ... here at Waikato Hospital, was to be brought up by parents who wanted us to have everything they didn’t have as kids,’’ Collins says.
‘‘Mymother used to say tome I was mummy’s little girl all the way from heaven as a little child, so I grew up thinking Iwas mummy’s little girl all the way from heaven. But I also knew that I was well-loved.’’
For Ardern, many opportunities arose from her stepping up and having a go.
‘‘I was also one of those kids that entered the science fair and had a go at the debating competition, sometimes because Iwas strong-armed into them, and sometimes because I just wanted to give it a go. Sometimeswhen you’re a kid in a small town, and no-one tells you you can’t, you have a shot.’’
Mood in the heartland
For Adrienne Carter, voting in a general election is less an exercise in choice and more an expression of identity.
‘‘I’ve always voted National, it’s alwayswhat I’ve done,’’ she says.
‘‘I generally rock up on voting day and tick the boxes and don’t investigate anybody else too far.’’
Carter and husband Stu have owned the Four Season Home & Garden Centre on Matamata’s Tainui St for the past four and half years and describe the level 4 lockdown as a scary time to be in business.
Keeping staff employed has been a major focus for the couple, something that wouldn’t have been possible without the Government’s wage subsidy.
Although the gardening industry has fared well during the post-lockdown period, uncertainty still hangs over the town’s retailers, Carter says.
‘‘I’m not a fan of Labour but I think they have done a good job. I don’t know how National would have done it differently,’’ she says.
Stu Carter expects National to retain theWaikato electorate this election, and gives credit to MPTim van de Molen and his predecessor Lindsay Tisch for being active in the community.
Yet Collins’ links to the Waikato aren’t as well known as Ardern’s, Carter concedes.
‘‘The older generationwould be aware but not somuch the younger ones. Jacinda [Ardern] is also younger, you see, so her connection is more recent.’’
At the Espresso to Go cafe on Matamata’s Broadway, owner Bill Anderson has been serving brews for more than 11 years. Covid-19 put paid to the town’s international visitors and played havoc with his travel plans when he flew back to Arlington, Texas, to visit his 94-year-old mother.
‘‘I’d been there aweek when the lockdown hit, airlines stopped flying, and I ended up trapped in the States for four and a half months,’’ Anderson says.
‘‘After seeing what happened in the States, I have to say New Zealand is the envy of the world.’’
He doesn’t expect Collins’ and Ardern’s respective links toWaikato to greatly influence how locals vote.
‘‘I wasn’t actually aware of Judith [Collins’] connection, although I know of Jacinda Ardern’s.
‘‘In the past, I probably wouldn’t have voted Labour because, as an American, I’ve always thought that employers and businesses are more important. But as I’ve got older, I’ve come to realise the government’s role is to look after people.’’
For Te Ao Marama Maaka, her connection to Ardern dates back towhen the pair served on Morrinsville College’s board of trustees together. Ardern was the board’s student representative and as a teenager showed strong leadership skills.
Her ascension to the position of prime minister is a remarkable feat and a positive reflection on Morrinsville. Even more special, however, is Ardern’s ability to connect with others, Maaka says.
‘‘I think back towhen Jacinda was a student and I see this girl that had so much empathy for others. It’s that quality, more than anything, thatmakes her special.’’
‘‘I can assure you, you have no less a chance of ... doing exactly what you dream of, and even things you don’t dream of, because I never dreamt of being prime minister, and yet here I am.’’
Jacinda Ardern
‘‘I think it’s got a lot to do with growing up on a farm and ... learning to be selfsufficient, always wanting to be able to do everything that you need to get done, just in case someone doesn’t do it.’’
Judith Collins