New Zealand Listener – August 10, 2019

66 LISTENER AUGUST 10 2019

Changing leadership

W

hat pitched

John Key

to probably

historic levels

of personal

popularity as prime minister

was his transcendent every-

man appeal.

Unlike other leaders, Key

eschewed a political persona

and was always himself, never

varying his affable, relaxed

manner whether he was

talking to shoppers or heads

of state. He was a breath of

fresh air on the stultifying

diplomatic circuit. Utterly

unselfconscious, and the

ultimate extrovert, he engaged

people in a way no other

political leader had.

Key sometimes lacked gravi-

tas but, to be fair, he never

tried to affect it, either.

That commanding popu-

larity was despite his being

a millionaire former money-

market trader – a class of

person held in widespread

odium following the excesses

of the 1980s – made Key’s

political career the more

remarkable.

Opinion polls don’t go back

far enough for anyone to be

sure, but his approval rating,

which at times topped 80%,

must have been at or near a

record.

His support was under-

pinned by a near-seamlesss

partnership with Finance Min-

ister Bill English, who once

said: “I grind away. John just

bounces from cloud to cloud.”

It was National under key,

with the support of Eng-

lish, who raised beneficiary

incomes for the first time

in more than 30 years. An

innate pragmatist, Key was

refreshingly non-doctrinaire

as leader of a country that had

experienced decades of politics

underpinned by see-saw left-

right ideology. The kid from

a state-house, solo-mother

family came without the bag-

gage of old grudges that beset

most MPs by the time they

gain seniority.

Retiring home to New

Zealand from his international

banking career at 40, he

had pursued a long-

time hankering to enter

politics, within four

years gaining the leader-

ship of the National

Party, and leading it

to election victory two

years later. Not that he

had long to bask, as the

global financial crisis hit

that year.

Preternaturally

unflappable and a

natural communica-

tor, he was widely seen

as a steady, optimistic

helmsman through that

turbulence, and later

through the repeated

traumas of the dev-

astating Canterbury

earthquake swarms.

It wasn’t just a big

chunk of voters at

home who found him

so likeable; US President

Barack Obama invited

him to play golf and the

Queen hosted Key and

his family for a weekend

at Balmoral.

M

any around

the world

were bowled

over by the empa-

thetic and inclusive

way Prime Minister Jacinda

Ardern handled the aftermath

of the Christchurch mosque

massacres. New Zealanders,

however, weren’t surprised.

Voters here had had time

to get used to her distinctly

new leadership style, and her

globally-lauded “They are

us” honouring of the Muslim

community was exactly the

sort of empathy they’d come

to expect.

Overseas political analysts

have shorthanded Ardern

as “the anti-Trump”. Her

unabashed

advancement of kindness as

a guiding principle of politics

has been widely hailed as an

antidote to the toxicity of

much politics elsewhere.

Her decision to give birth

to her first child, Neve, while

Prime Minister has also

opened new vistas for women

in leadership. Her fiancé,

Clarke Gayford, handles

Neve’s day-to-day care, though

even during her brief mater-

nity leave, Ardern was an

active phone “adviser” to the

Acting Prime Minister,

her deputy, Winston

Peters.

An MP since 2008,

Ardern rocketed to

prominence after then

Labour leader Andrew

Little first asked, then

implored her to take

over the leadership

to try to salvage the

party’s dire polling

ahead of the 2017

election. Though long

known as Labour’s

not-so-secret weapon,

her instant appeal took

even her mentors by

surprise. Her forth-

right but emphatically

non-combative cam-

paigning immediately

put Labour back into

contention, its polling

at times exceeding that

of the hitherto com-

mandingly popular

National Government.

Then 37 – or “youth

adjacent”, as she put it

• Ardern took Labour’s
  polling from the mid-
  20s to 36.9% in the
  election. Given National
  had won 44.4%, it
  was controversial that
  Ardern was nevertheless
  empowered to form the
  next Government in a
  NZ First and Green Party coali-
  tion. National has maintained
  its poll lead but political
  analysts are still shy of predict-
  ing it can make Ardern’s a
  one-term administration.

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80 YEARS