Time for PM to push back

There is an edge to Jacinda Ardern’s answers these days that we haven’t heard before. That should probably not come as a surprise. The criticism of Ardern’s government has started to look like a pile-on as it reels from one blow to the next – the war with business, one minister gone, a second minister under a huge cloud, the Abbey Hartley controversy, and an emboldened NZ First looking like it’s running rings around Labour and Ardern.

Even the entirely predictable admonishment of a backbench MP, Greg O’Connor, for publicly criticising her handling of the Clare Curran affair turned into a bizarre headline about Ardern bullying her MPs.

All Governments have bad patches and that is what Labour has been consoling itself with as the relentless pressure on its ministers and Ardern shows no sign of abating. But whether it’s a sign of the modern media and the plethora of commentary and opinion these days, or whether it’s a sign that things really are that shambolic at Labour HQ, the pressure being heaped on Ardern to make things right seems to be immense.

As – still – Labour’s most potent, even only, weapon, Ardern is being forced to front every issue. Some of that is unavoidable – she had to front the Clare Curran and Meka Whaitiri debacles as prime minister and Labour leader.

But is Labour leaning too heavily on Ardern behind the scenes as well?

The prime minister’s biggest headaches aren’t just internal but her relationship with NZ First, which seems increasingly to be on a collision course with Labour over flagship policies like the refugee quota or law and order.

The job of managing that relationship seems to fall heavily on Ardern and another headache may be looming with Labour’s industrial relations agenda.

It was columnist Jane Clifton who coined the phrase ‘‘Win-cinda’’ for the Winston and Jacinda show a few weeks after the election but it never took, presumably because noone doubted Ardern’s power was at its zenith at that point, while Peters was ‘‘Mr 7 per cent’’, a reflection of NZ First’s election result.

But something has changed since then and there is a growing perception Peters is at the very least reigning Labour in, or at worst ruling the roost. Ardern needs to push back before that image becomes entrenched.

Some of that perception is down to a couple of deserved bloody noses over the two-strikes legislation and the refugee quota, both policies which Labour acted as though they had in the bag before getting agreement from NZ First.

But NZ First’s position on industrial relations reforms will be red rag to a bull in Labour given that the legislation went through both the Cabinet and select committee process with NZ First.

Peters will have sniffed the wind on business confidence, however, and may see political mileage in forcing Labour to tone the legislation down.

But attitudes may have hardened in Labour after his humiliation of Ardern over the refugee quota. It might be time Labour sharpens its political management – maybe a former MP and bruiser like Rick Barker, who knows how to run the trenches between Labour and NZ First.