Chris Hipkins’s best chance of recovering his party’s standing will lie in abandoning a clutch of unpopular reforms that Jacinda Ardern had been pushing
on January 19th of Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s widely-loved prime minister, could have triggered bloodletting in the country’s ruling Labour Party. But it has selected a new leader with remarkably little fuss. Within two days of Ms Ardern’s announcement, Labour MPs had coalesced behind Chris Hipkins, the education minister. He was formally endorsed as Labour leader on January 22nd and will be sworn in as prime minister on January 25th.
Mr Hipkins has a reputation in Wellington, New Zealand’s capital, for quiet competence, says Ben Thomas, a former adviser to the opposition National Party. During Labour’s two terms in power, he has been given a series of problems to manage. As health minister, he was in charge of implementing New Zealand’s stringent response to covid-19, one of Ms Ardern’s best-known–and recently most contentious–policies.
The goodwill towards Ms Ardern in her party is unfeigned. New Zealand politicos are not used to the global popularity she achieved, as a charismatic cheerleader for progressive values and moderation. Still, her popularity has waned, as voters’ erstwhile approval of Ms Ardern’s covid-19 policies–which helped her win an impressive majority in 2020–has given way to a familiar gripe about high inflation . A recent survey suggests Ms Ardern’s net approval rating is slightly negative.
He has vowed to recover his party’s standing by focusing on“bread-and-butter issues that people care about”. That, he says, will include tackling the “pandemic of inflation” and making “the tax system fairer”. In reality, his best chance of signalling a change of tack will lie in abandoning a clutch of unpopular reforms that Ms Ardern had been pushing. An expensive merger between the country’s national television and radio broadcasters is likely to be scrapped.
That could be enough to put Labour back into contention. Mr Luxon, a former chief executive of Air New Zealand, looks beatable. And Mr Hipkins, a strawberry-blond known to his colleagues as “Chippy”, has a down-to-earth, self-deprecating manner that Kiwis tend to like. Covid-19 management aside, he may be best known for subsisting on a diet of cola and sausage rolls.
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