10.8 C
Auckland
Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Popular Now

Oleg Burunov
Oleg Burunov
Oleg Burunov is a Moscow-based correspondent who has been working at Sputnik since 2015 and specialises in foreign affairs and defence.

Ardern Faces Tough Times Ahead Amid Sinking Approval Rating

Jacinda Ardern news

Jacinda Ardern promised that next year, New Zealand’s government would focus on economic issues, such as addressing rising living costs.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s approval rating has plummeted this year, and “things could get worse” for her in 2023, which will see the country’s general election, according to the UK press.

The media outlet reported that next year, Ardern is expected to face a tricky task of strengthening her Labour party “with a decidedly less optimistic public behind her.”
In this vein, the outlet referred to the fact that opinion polls on whether people think New Zealand “is going in the right direction” started to ebb from a high of 70% in early 2021 to 30% at the end of this year.

A separate survey showed that support for the Labour party had dropped to its lowest level since it came into power in 2017, while Ardern’s personal approval rating dropped to 29% – her lowest result since August 2017, just before she entered office.

Ardern’s former chief of staff Neale Jones told journalists that “people’s focus has been on family budgets – they’ve been very concerned about what’s happening to their jobs, their mortgage repayments, how much it costs to buy groceries and petrol.”

“So they expect the government to show the same laser focus that they’ve been feeling,” Jones said, arguing that instead, “the government’s been trying to do a lot and hasn’t really been able to explain all of it well.”1

Touching upon the election year, Jones suggested that “the 2023 campaign will look very different to previous campaigns – New Zealand’s traditionally relaxed, casual democracy where the public has great access to politicians becomes too much of a security risk.”

“Part of what was so successful with Jacinda Ardern’s communication through the Covid [pandemic] was that there was a singular focus: she was able to send a clear message to New Zealanders about what the plan was to get out of it. I think that would be the sort of strength that Jacinda could lean back on to win a third term,” the Prime Minister’s ex­­­­­-chief of staff noted.

He was echoed by Shane te Pou, former executive member of the Labour party, who told the outlet that “you can explain away about inflation and external forces but it has no effect on the voter – every time they fill up the car, every time they go to get kai [food], they’re considering their circumstances and their government.”

The remark followed Ardern telling a local broadcaster earlier this month that the government would pare back its policy agenda to “focus on the economy”, amid plummeting polling and growing pressure over living costs in New Zealand.

“We’ve been really focused on making sure, during this particularly tumultuous economic time we’re in, that we are trimming back and making sure that the economy is our priority,” the prime minister emphasized.

She added that the government “had a lot” on its agenda and that “going into 2023 we do need to make sure we are totally focused, we prioritize [economy], and that we will be making sure that where we need to pare back we will.”

Image credit: Vašek Vinklát, CC BY 2.0

Promoted Content

No login required to comment. Name, email and web site fields are optional. Please keep comments respectful, civil and constructive. Moderation times can vary from a few minutes to a few hours. Comments may also be scanned periodically by Artificial Intelligence to eliminate trolls and spam.

5 COMMENTS

  1. Approval ratings do not matter. The agent’s cut matters more. WEF and globalists are proud of Jabby, the best agent they had in all of the vassal states.

  2. Basically, Oligarchs set the agenda at DAVOS. The U.N. implements that agenda. The agenda is: Oligarchs will own all the land on Earth, not be accountable to anyone. Your leaders will be appointed, backed by security forces. You will do as instructed.

  3. When will the opposition point out that these turbulent economic times are not caused by Covid but by The governments (WEF, WHO and NZ) Covid response. Covid did not print the money nor force us into destructive lock downs, the govt did.
    Simon Bridge’s quite at the start of the pandemic ‘The cure may be worse than the disease’ was prophetic. Maybe that’s why he was removed and given a cushy podcast backed by MSM.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Latest

Trending

Sport

Daily Life

Opinion

Wellington
overcast clouds
9.1 ° C
10 °
7.7 °
65 %
10.8kmh
100 %
Tue
10 °
Wed
11 °
Thu
14 °
Fri
15 °
Sat
16 °