Welleington - New Zealanders will go to
polls on September 19 to decide on a second term for Prime
Minister Jacinda Ardern, and also to vote in referendums on the
divisive issues of legalising cannabis and euthanasia.
Ardern is hugely popular among liberal voters overseas
thanks to her compassionate but decisive response to a mass
shooting, her focus on climate change action and
multilateralism, and her ability to combine motherhood and
leadership.
But her popularity at home has been affected by slowing
economic growth and low business confidence, a failed state
housing project and scandals within her coalition government.
“I will be asking New Zealanders to continue to support my
leadership and the current direction of the government, which is
grounded in stability, a strong economy and progress on the long
term challenges facing New Zealand,” Ardern told a news
conference.
Political pundits are predicting a close contest, with
scheduled referendums on legalising cannabis and euthanasia
expected to be distracting and divisive.
"I am not making predictions on this as it's going to be a
tight race," said Grant Duncan, Associate Professor at Massey
University in Auckland.
New Zealand's Treasury last month trimmed its 2020 economic
growth forecast and flagged a budget deficit as international
headwinds including Brexit and the US-China trade war bite.
The government last month announced a NZ$12 billion ($7.7
billion) infrastructure spend to try counter those factors.
Two October opinion polls showed support for her ruling
coalition at its lowest since 2017. Her own popularity also
waned, but she remains far ahead of her rivals.
In an interview with Reuters last month, Ardern noted there
was work to be done but her party was still polling higher than
it was before the 2017 election.
'CAN'T DELIVER'
Ardern, 39, took the helm of the country as the world's
youngest female leader in 2017, a remarkable rise that dominated
global headlines and generated the phrase "Jacinda-mania".
She campaigned passionately to end child poverty and
economic inequality, upstaging the ruling centre-right National
Party and forming a government with the small, nationalist New
Zealand First Party and the Green Party under the country's
proportional voting system.
Ardern's response to the massacre at two mosques in
Christchurch in March, when she wore a headscarf to meet with
the families of the victims and then rapidly pushed a ban on
semi-automatic weapons through parliament, was widely praised.
She became only the second head of state after Pakistan's
Benazir Bhutto to give birth while in office, attending the
United Nations with her baby and partner in tow.
But critics have accused her of playing to a global audience
while bringing little change locally.
"New Zealanders have seen that Labour and Jacinda Ardern
can’t deliver," National Party leader Simon Bridges said in a
statement. "While there’s a lot of announcements, leadership
means actually getting things done."
Ardern said last week her party would wage a "relentlessly
positive" 2020 election campaign while announcing her party had
signed up to Facebook's advertising transparency tool to fight
misinformation.
"We will be asking for a further term to get the job done,"
Ardern told the news conference.
The cannabis referendum, pushed through by the Greens, would
bring younger voters to the polls, but there were concerns there
were too many things going, said Duncan from Massey University.
"The big issue is how people feel about the government's
performance...it's performance in relation to housing and child
poverty, and there will be a debate about climate change," said
Duncan.
The parliament will be officially dissolved on August 12 and
until then the government will function as usual, Ardern said.