It’s been quite a fall. At the beginning of 2021 Jacinda Ardern was one of the most popular politicians on the planet. She won a historic election victory the previous year then formed the first majority government since Aotearoa New Zealand adopted the mixed-member proportional electoral system in 1996. The nation enjoyed a long, pandemic-free summer complete with weddings, barbecues, festivals and concerts, a level of personal and economic freedom unmatched anywhere else in the Covid-ravaged world.
But the last year has seen a dramatic collapse in Labour’s poll ratings. The fall was slow at first, with some voters drifting to the Green party, others to National. Then in November the covert war within the National party broke into open conflict. The then-leader, Judith Collins, demoted former leader Simon Bridges, allegedly as punishment for a tasteless joke he told a fellow MP four years earlier; National’s caucus responded by sacking Collins. Christopher Luxon, a former Air New Zealand chief executive elected to parliament only a year earlier, replaced her after a brief leadership contest. Labour’s decline steepened as National under Luxon soared.
