Ardern kicks off election campaign

AUCKLAND: With promises of extra financing for small businesses and more jobs as a severe economic downturn looms, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday launched her party’s campaign ahead of a September general election.

Ms Ardern’s rise to become New Zealand’s most popular prime minister in a century, buoyed by her response to the Covid-19 pandemic that has left the country largely unscathed, has boosted her prospects in the Sept 19 election.

Ms Ardern’s Labour Party, governing in a coalition with the Greens and the nationalist New Zealand First party, will face the National Party in what is expected to be a pandemic-dominated campaign.

If the prime minister’s high ratings are mirrored in the election results, Labour would govern on its own, without needing a coalition.

The government’s early and hard coronavirus curbs that paralysed economic activity have put the country in a technical recession for the first time in a decade.

“There wasn’t a playbook for Covid,” Ms Ardern said at the Labour Party congress. “There wasn’t a playbook for the recovery.”

She said a loan scheme for small businesses, which allows for no interest loans if paid back within a year and which was to end this month, will be extended until the year-end, and more environmental and infrastructure jobs will be created under a previously announced plan.

Small and medium-sized enterprises generate about a third of New Zealand’s gross domestic product.

“I can’t think of a time in our recent history when we have been collectively challenged by such a cruel combination of events — a terrorist attack, a volcanic eruption, a global pandemic and now its ensuing financial crisis,” Ms Ardern said.