Category Archives: Jacinda Ardern

ANALYSIS: It hasnt taken the world very long to change. When Jacinda Ardern became prime minister in 2017 she probably didn't imagine that five years later she would be talking with US President Joe Biden about wanting to get much more US engagement in the Pacific. Or that Chinas furtive forays into the region would have become so blunt and open.

Yet this is one of the issues that will be foremost on the agenda for the White House meeting on Wednesday. It comes as the rule-based international order, which has been imperfectly upheld by the US since World War II comes under sustained pressure by China and outright attack by Russia.

Essentially what we are now seeing is the beginning of a fight over who sets the rules under which the world operates. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave a significant speech last Thursday on the US approach to China, in which he laid out the challenge clearly:

China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it. Beijings vision would move us away from the universal values that have sustained so much of the worlds progress over the past 75 years.

Dario Lopez-Mills/AP

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden arrive at a memorial outside Robb Elementary School to honour the victims killed in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

READ MORE:* Climate change and Ukraine on the agenda for Jacinda Ardern's trip to the US* Japan and NZ to negotiate intelligence-sharing deal after Ardern and Kishida meet amid tensions with China* Jacinda Ardern denounces Solomon defence pact with China, but says she can't just 'drop a WhatsApp' to Xi Jinping

China is not a nation that wishes plays by the rules of others. Viewing itself as the modern incarnation of an ancient and sprawling empire, it seeks to make its own rules. It wants its own institutions that others join. Despite being arguably the biggest beneficiaries of the global rules-based trading order led by the US (a point made by Blinken) Chinas view is that precisely because the current rules were shaped by the west, they are almost automatically inimical to Chinas interests.

In our backyard, the Pacific, the practical outcome of that is new security pact with the Solomon Islands, and a proposed sprawling economic and security deal for 10 Pacific nations and China. That comes on top of Chinese loans made to various Pacific nations over the past decade or so.

It is part of a broader, decades-long play to delegitimise the US in the Pacific and supplant it with China.

Thats why it will be top of the agenda.

More broadly, when Ardern meets with Biden it will be the culmination of many months of work, thrown into disarray by Covid, but secured nonetheless. The importance of having real face-to-face meetings cannot be overstated. They are a chance to build rapport and put a face to a name. They are also a chance for each leader to work out the cut of each other's gib. This is why leaders meet.

Prior to Donald Trumps venal America-First posture, there have been significant meetings with US presidents that have yielded results. John Keys visits with Barack Obama helped to further repair a relationship that has been on the mend for nearly 40 years since New Zealand went nuclear-free and then subsequently pulled out of the Anzus treaty.

The way the meetings work is that there are photos with the leaders before they head into the Oval Office and when they emerge they will sit on lounge seats and talk about what they talked about. The body language - and how comfortable Ardern and Biden are after that will be key to watch.

Ardern will also meet with Vice President Kamala Harris prior to meeting with Biden. It is expected that those conversations will revolve around gun control and space exploration. The development of New Zealands space industry, spear-headed by Rocket Lab could be one of the surprise talking points coming out of that meeting.

Ardern has been keen to hose down expectations from this meeting. The leaders will almost certainly not be emerging with any new initiatives or deals. They will also talk about trade, but the US domestic political landscape will not allow any new trade deals or market access in the short run. And of course, guns will be on the list after the Uvalde shootings, as well as Ukraine.

But with New Zealands part of the world becoming more contested, simply talking about what is going on and how the US can genuinely engage will be worthwhile. New Zealand is going to get closer to the US, it is going to be events-driven and thanks to Covid, this meeting will be the first in a new, geo-strategically contested world.

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Why this White House meet is one Jacinda Ardern probably never thought she'd have - Stuff

For decades, many of New Zealands most influential people didnt hold seats in parliament. They didnt pass legislation or regulations. They often didnt even work in the capital, Wellington.

Yet this group the elected leaders of advocacy groups Federated Farmers, DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb exercised immense power over parliament.

It wasnt that farmers affected the government. Farmers were the government, says Dr Hugh Campbell, a professor of sociology at the University of Otago.

Now that power already weakened by shifts in farmers share of exports and changes to New Zealands electoral system is critically threatened from within.

In recent years, the countrys farmers have come under significant pressure for their disproportionate greenhouse gas emissions; the agricultural sector produces more than half of New Zealands industry and household emissions.

When Jacinda Arderns Labour government began introducing measures aimed at reducing farmings environmental impacts the major farming advocates worked with the government to soften the impact. But a sizeable minority of disaffected farmers who call their movement Groundswell took to the streets to oppose the policies and denounce their ostensible representatives.

According to Campbell, this emerging schism in New Zealands farming community threatens to undermine the power of their traditional representatives, who recently wielded that influence to secure $710m in funding from the revenue generated by the countrys emissions trading scheme, even though the agricultural sector is exempt from contributing to those funds until 2025. It also illustrates the difficulty many governments face as they try to reduce agricultures climate impact, even when they win support from agricultures traditional champions.

Ive been accused of being a communist, been told Ive got no nuts, says Andrew Hoggard, the president of Federated Farmers. The more rabid supporters at times get angry with everyone else.

Part of the reason many farmers are so aggrieved is a feeling that they have lost the influence they once wielded, says Campbell. Between the second world war and 1973, farmers exercised absolute power, he says. They generated the vast majority of New Zealands exports and were scattered in a way that maximised their power under the countrys old majoritarian electoral system.

The result was a shadow world of farming politics which was deeply intertwined with New Zealands government, says Campbell. Farmers had direct access to the highest levels of government, right into the cabinet room.

That power began declining in 1973, when Britains entry to the European economic zone, global oil shocks and a collapse in commodity prices undercut farmers. This was exacerbated by the 1993 introduction of a proportional electoral system, which strengthened the political power of urban New Zealanders.

If you add together all the farmers in the country, were maybe one electoral seat, says Hoggard. Its middle-class Auckland swing voters who determine the government. That makes things a hell of a lot more tricky for me than it was for whoever was in the job 30 years ago.

But even if they were no longer dominant, says Campbell, farmers had enough residual power to keep the government off their back.

In 2017, however, Arderns Labour party won power in a shock election result and proposed a raft of policies designed to improve water quality, reduce pollution and cut greenhouse gas emissions. In 2019, Federated Farmers, DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb agreed to work with the government on how to bring agriculture into the countrys emissions trading scheme, from which farmers had long fought to remain exempt.

The old days of stomping our feet and saying, This is how its gotta be and we dont care what anyone in town thinks? Theyre long gone, says Hoggard.

The proposals prompted outrage among farmers, as did agricultural representatives engagement with them. Bryce Mckenzie, the founder of Groundswell, called the governments proposals an attack on farming. Groundswells subsequent protests were attended by thousands of farmers and became venues to air wider grievances. At some, attendees flew Trump flags and carried signs with phrases like Make Ardern Go Away and Media Treason.

Much of their anger was directed at DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb, which Groundswell believes have grown too close to the government. While Mckenzie is comfortable with the approach of Federated Farmers, he says DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb are not doing the best for farming overall.

Andrew Morrison, the chair of Beef + Lamb, said: Generally speaking, theres no difference between the Federated Farmers, DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb positions. Groundswell are perceiving a difference Were all signed up to the same program.

Hoggard, meanwhile, says Groundswells success has prompted Federated Farmers to develop a more outspoken communication strategy. The risk in the back of our mind, says Hoggard, is that [farmers] ask: What do I need to pay my Federated Farmers subscription for, when Groundswell is out there saying this more vocally and aggressively?

A DairyNZ spokesperson said its chair, Jim van der Poel, was unavailable for an interview.

In March, Groundswells frustrations prompted its leaders to decline an invitation to meet with Ardern because DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb representatives would also be present. Mckenzie called them pet lobby groups of the government and failing establishment bodies. Later, in a letter to DairyNZ members, van der Poel denounced Groundswells misinformation, personal attacks and political tricks.

Theyre not on talking terms any more, says Hoggard.

The consequences of that disunity and the political weakness it exposes could be profound, says Morrison. This isnt a threat, but the government has been clear that if we cant find a solution, agriculture will end up in the emissions trading scheme Its important that the sector be united.

That schism will widen, predicts Campbell. In the worst-case scenario, he believes New Zealand could see a massive radicalisation of rural populations. We underestimate to our peril the extent to which hard rightwing, ultra-libertarian radicalisation can take root in New Zealand.

In the short term, he says, the emerging schism creates a political bind. Farming representatives are in a really awkward position: they know where they have to go but theyre up against a group that doesnt want to go anywhere at all.

Its going to be increasingly hard to paper over what is essentially a fracture in peoples sense of reality, he concluded. Federated Farmers and major agricultural sectoral groups simply cant live in a world of climate denialism and denial of environmental impacts.

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New Zealands once all-powerful farmers split amid anger over Ardern climate policy - The Guardian

26 May, 2022Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the media at Harvard University. Video / NZ Herald

OPINION:

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's first visit to the White House on Tuesday had a bumpy run-up, but the meeting with US President Joe Biden should go well.

That the White House managed to shoehorn Ardern into Biden's schedule at all after scrapping an earlier slot because of Ardern's recent Covid-19 is a show of goodwill by the US.

Presidents do not have many holes in their schedule, and Biden is now in the midst of dealing with the Texas school shooting. Yet a second meeting slot for Tuesday (US Time) was found.

From what was seen of early interactions between Biden and Ardern, he was warm to her. He was also warm about New Zealand when he visited in 2017.

The meeting with Vice-President Kamala Harris is also significant.

There may even be something in the meeting for them as Biden tries to show he means it when he talks about engaging with the Indo-Pacific and tries to respond to calls for tighter gun laws after the shootings in Buffalo and Texas.

The response from students at Harvard University when Ardern spoke about New Zealand's ban on military-style weapons was a long and loud standing ovation.

Gun reform is notoriously difficult in the US - but it won't hurt Biden among his constituency to be seen with Ardern at such a time.

Ardern will go in with a wish list - the top of which is for the US to rejoin the CPTPP trade deal.

Ardern's meeting is unlikely to be the game-changer on that, but it will add her voice to those of other CPTPP countries trying to convince the US if it wants to have economic influence in the region, the CPTPP is the way to get it.

The less tangible gains for Ardern are also critical.

The White House visit means Ardern has a chance to get the relationship with the US back on the same footing it was with Sir John Key and Barack Obama. She did not have - or necessarily want - that under Donald Trump's presidency.

It could also get New Zealand more firmly onto the US radar as it goes about rebuilding its influence in the region - or at least stop it slipping off altogether.

When Ardern was in New York on the Late Show, Stephen Colbert asked a very pertinent question about the Quad grouping, a defence and security alliance between the US, Australia, Japan and India.

"Do you guys ever go and say 'do you want to make it a Quint?'"

Ardern brushed the question off by pointing to the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing group, of which New Zealand is a part.

But it is a question that will be at the back of her mind as she prepares for the White House visit.

The question is whether NZ is in danger of being left out or at least sitting in the back seat as the US sets about rebuilding its influence in the region.

That will bring into play the issue of China.

Quad is not the only new group of countries the US has formed recently. There is the Aukus grouping - Australia, UK and the US.

The US goal is to sideline China and instead build up its own network of partners in the same region to try to squeeze China out.

That contest ramped up in the past week with the news China was openly courting about 10 of the Pacific nations and seeking to form a trade and security bloc with them.

That will have sent shivers up the spine of New Zealand and Australia and the US.

All of that has some, including Sir John Key, worrying other countries will be forced to pick a side: China or the US.

If it was a black-and-white decision, New Zealand would be with the US.

But that is something Ardern does not particularly want to spell out. The US is New Zealand's third-largest trading partner - but China is our first by some margin.

That is courtesy of a free trade agreement that NZ has no immediate prospects of securing from the US.

Biden's newly hatched Indo-Pacific Economic Framework lacks one critical ingredient of free trade agreements: free trade. It does not include tariff removal.

Those countries are concerned Biden sees it as an alternative to the CPTPP - not a complement.

Ardern has already started her pitch on that - or at least trying to make the most out of IPEF by talking about non-tariff measures.

After announcing the visit in Boston yesterday she noted the current shortage of infant milk formula in the US as its domestic supply faltered.

She said Fonterra was able to fill that shortfall - but that was difficult because of regulatory barriers.

NZ cannot afford to simply dismiss it - it could be seen as a snub and it cannot miss out if it does turn from conversations into something more concrete.

Ardern has leaned towards the US without going far enough to rub China up the wrong way.

That included agreeing swiftly to be a part of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, despite its inadequacies.

Ardern has also responded to Biden's call for countries to do as much as they can for the war in Ukraine - the response swiftly moved from humanitarian aid and sanctions to troop deployments and money for missiles. New Zealand is also among a group of "like-minded countries" boycotting Russia at international summits.

At the recent Apec trade ministers' meeting, Damien O'Connor walked out while Russia's trade minister was talking and boycotted a gala dinner.

But New Zealand's criticism of China has been far more nuanced than Australia's - it has long managed to walk a line between the two countries.

Ardern has voiced generalised concern about the potential militarisation of the Pacific and China's overt attempts to line up Pacific countries on its side. She says it is something she wants the Pacific Islands countries to resolve together.

She answers questions about New Zealand and China by saying New Zealand bases its relationships on values - but sidesteps answering questions about where China sits in that calculation.

Some fear continuing that way as China flexes its influence in the Pacific is risking New Zealand being relegated to a bit-player in the US strategy.

Ardern will be hoping Biden has taken more notice of what she has said than what she hasn't said.

The rest is here:

Claire Trevett: PM's White House visit chance to stop NZ being left out - New Zealand Herald

PM Jacinda Ardern is introduced as an honorary degree recipient before speaking at Harvard's 371st Commencement, Thursday, May 26, 2022, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Photo / AP

Opinion:

What do Jacinda Ardern, Taylor Swift and I have in common? Well, none of us have bothered to put in the hard work, or invest any time or money into getting a PhD.

Yet, two of us this week became honorary doctors and none of those two was me.

It's all good, I'm not bitter. Definitely not as bitter as I'd probably be if I had, in fact, put in the time, money and effort required to complete years of extra study to become an expert in my field and be granted the honour of adding PhD after my name and make people I don't like call me Doctor.

I'm mentioning Taylor Swift and Jacinda Ardern because they are the most recent examples of famous people receiving honorary degrees but they are two in a very long list of people who've received them. And it's not even just people - even Kermit the Frog has an honorary degree and I don't, even though we're probably equally deserving.

In their defence, both Taylor Swift and Jacinda Ardern - two people who no one should argue deserve plenty of recognition for their work - acknowledged in their commencement speeches that they had not actually earned the titles they were being given.

"I in no way feel qualified to tell you what to do. You've worked and struggled and sacrificed and studied and dreamed your way here today," Taylor Swift told the crowd at her New York University ceremony.

"Now I am not an academic. I acknowledge the robes on this occasion aren't exactly truth in advertising. Rather, I am a politician from Morrinsville," Ardern told the Harvard audience.

With those phrases, they both pointed out that their honorary titles were nothing but performance art.

What is the point of handing out an achievement to someone who already has the limelight?

And if even a fictional frog gets to have an honorary degree from a real-life university, what's the point of handing them out at all?

The answer is actually quite simple and I needn't waste so many paragraphs before getting to it: money.

Universities often dish out honorary degrees to their top donors or they'll hand them out to a celebrity in exchange for the publicity they'll get when that celebrity goes and gives a commencement speech (and, I'm no PhD but even I know that publicity = money). Ten years ago, a Herald investigation found that New Zealand universities had spent $250,000 on honorary degrees so, whatever publicity or benefit the institution gets from those, they pay a price for it.

I have nothing against recognising people for their professional achievements, in whatever field - and both these examples from the last few days are, undoubtedly, two people at the absolute top of their field. But it doesn't mean we should be giving them the equivalent title to someone who has dedicated years of time, money and energy to academic research.

And while I understand that recognition is not pie and one person getting it doesn't mean others can't get it, I feel like the distinction is important, especially when you consider that so many honorary degrees are given, not because of merit or achievement, but because of financial donations made to the university.

There is a lot that can be said about the long history of inequality in academia and in the access to higher education in general. Granting honorary degrees to the rich and famous does very little to even out any playing field.

In a world where it is increasingly harder to distinguish between "experts", does it make sense to keep muddying the waters through meaningless honorifics? I argue that, more than ever, as pandemics threaten our lives and climate change threatens our future, it has never been more important to be extra clear about who the experts are.

Like Kanye at the VMAs, I too am very happy for Taylor Swift, and I mean this without a hint of shade but, honorary or not, does it really make sense to give her an academic degree?

Original post:

Opinion: Taylor Swift and Jacinda Ardern just got theirs but do honorary degrees mean anything? - New Zealand Herald

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is capping off her trip to Japan by reuniting with a home-stay sister who stayed with her family over three decades ago.

Madoka Watanabe, now 46, visited New Zealand on an exchange student programme when she was about 14, and stayed with Arderns family.

Ardern was 10 at the time and living in the Waikato, and the pair have not seen each other since.

They were reunited at the start of an event at the New Zealand Embassy in Tokyo on Friday.

READ MORE:* PM Jacinda Ardern arrives in Tokyo for second leg of Asia trip* China looms large over Jacinda Ardern's feel-good visit to Singapore* Jacinda Ardern denounces Solomon defence pact with China, but says she can't just 'drop a WhatsApp' to Xi Jinping

Henry Cooke/Stuff/Stuff

Jacinda Ardern with her former homestay sister and her husband.

I grew up to be taller than you, Ardern remarked as they were reunited.

Arderns mother had kept the details of the exchange students through the years, and officials managed to track the sister down ahead of Arderns trip to Tokyo, her second visit to Japan as prime minister.

The prime minister said her parents had insisted that Watanabe and her family be invited back to New Zealand a visit that would not be possible ahead of May 2, when the border reopens to tourists from visa-waiver countries like Japan.

Watanabe replied - through a translator - that she would like to visit.

Supplied

A photo of Watanabe and the Ardern family when she was staying. Ardern is on the left in pink, with father Ross and Laurell and Louisa.

She said her favourite memory of New Zealand was visiting an orchard and eating an apple straight from the tree.

Ardern said the orchard was at the back of their property and they had also tried to get Watanabe to drive a tractor.

Ardern is leaving Japan for New Zealand on Saturday after her first overseas trip since the start of the pandemic. She spent two days in Singapore and full days in Japan.

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Jacinda Ardern reunited with Japanese homestay sister after 32 years ...

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Photo / Mark Mitchell

OPINION:

A change in government in Australia often foreshadows a change in New Zealand too.

The electoral success of the independent "Teal" candidates is a warning to politicians to take climate change seriously, but the killer issue was inflation.

On the eve of the election, the Roy Morgan economic confidence survey revealed a majority of Australians were pessimistic and expecting inflation.

The Roy Morgan survey for New Zealand shows we are even more pessimistic and have even higher inflationary expectations.

Governments are rarely re-elected when the majority of voters are pessimistic about the economy and inflation.

Last week will prove crucial for the electoral prospects of the Labour/Green Government. It included the release of the Government's Emissions Reduction Plan and Grant Robertson's fourth "Wellbeing Budget".

The Government's climate change response is a hodgepodge of spending. Included in the initiatives are proposals that have nothing to do with the climate, such as a change to NCEA and tertiary education, unemployment insurance, tikanga programmes and so on. The big winner from the $3 billion package is corporate New Zealand.

James Shaw, the minister responsible, was unable to explain why the Climate Change Commission's recommendations have been largely ignored. A headline on a comment piece on the Herald website saying "James Shaw is toast" summed up the environmental movement's reaction.

If the Australian election is a guide, next election a new environmental party will contest for the climate change vote.

The reaction to the Budget was also a disappointment. At a 30-year high, inflation is the number one issue.

As late as March, Jacinda Ardern was on breakfast TV denying that the cost of living is a crisis. Grant Robertson has rejected the Reserve Bank governor's advice that to tame inflation, along with central banks tightening monetary policy, governments must also exercise fiscal restraint.

Although it is clear that inflation is not transitory, Robertson refuses to take the tough decisions needed to combat rising prices. The Finance Minister has proceeded with record spending. He admits his budget will be inflationary.

We have the lunacy of the central bank applying the brakes and the Government the accelerator.

We also have the madness of trying to reduce the effects of inflation by yet more spending.

When the Government announced a "temporary" easing of fuel excise duty and a "temporary" public transport subsidy, this column predicted that it would find both measures difficult to remove. So it has proved. The Budget announced further "temporary" extensions.

No government has been able to end the totally unjustifiable free ferry trips to Waiheke Island for Gold Card holders. Come November, why would the Government be able to take away $27 a week from 2.1 million voters? By then, many mortgagors will be experiencing financial hardship.

The Government is borrowing from the future to increase today's incomes. It is unsustainable.

Treasury's prediction that inflation will exceed the Reserve Bank mandate through to the election raises many questions:

Has Labour abandoned the Policy Targets Agreement whereby the Reserve Bank is required to keep inflation between 1 per cent and 3 per cent?

Will Wednesday's Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Statement will reveal if the bank is following its mandate, or whether it is just trying to moderate inflation?

How credible is Grant Robertson's claim that inflation has peaked?

No union can accept pay rises of less than inflation. And a business that does not pass on costs risks going broke.

Inflation has given the Government record tax revenue. Now inflation will reduce what that revenue can buy. The telephone number Labour has thrown at health will be eaten away by inflation.

Labour is losing economic credibility and National is gaining it. When Christopher Luxon became leader, he could have chosen a rainbow of issues. When the Government was claiming inflation was transitory, the Opposition leader made the smart decision to focus on the cost of living.

The polls now say National is more competent to handle the economy.

Act also rose in the latest poll. Act has put forward a costed alternative Budget, and the party has said where it would reduce government spending.

National has yet to nominate a single government ministry that would not be missed. In Australia, the unwillingness of both the Liberals and Labor to take tough decisions saw both parties' primary vote fall. There is a message in that for National.

Parliament is closed this week so Labour can sell the Budget and the Greens their climate response package. Already both have failed to convince a key constituency, their own activists.

There is not a single Labour Party member who bought raffle tickets so a Labour Government could provide temporary income support.

There is not one Green Party member who door-knocked so Green MPs could provide corporate welfare.

Enthusiasm is something the polls cannot measure but it is vital. Enthusiasm motivates volunteers to donate, door-knock, deliver pamphlets, enrol and vote.

A UN job must be looking more and more attractive to Ardern.

- Richard Prebble is a former leader of the Act Party and former member of the Labour Party.

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Richard Prebble: Why Aussie election is bad news for Ardern - New Zealand Herald

New Zealands prime minister Jacinda Ardern says her countrys swift change to gun laws after the 2019 mass shooting in Christchurch was a pragmatic response, where we saw something that wasnt right and we acted on it.

The prime minister was speaking as her visit to the United States coincided with the mass killing of 19 children at a school in Uvalde, Texas.

Ardern appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, which was filmed shortly after the Uvalde shooting. When I watch from afar and see events such as this today, its not as a politician. I see them just as a mother, an emotional Ardern said. Im so sorry for what has happened here.

Colbert referred to the aftermath of the 15 March 2019 mosque shootings, where 51 people were killed by a white supremacist, saying: Immediately thereafter the New Zealand parliament took action to remove guns from the streets.

He asked: Why New Zealand was able to do that, when we cant so much as pass universal background checks how did New Zealanders get that done?

Ardern said New Zealanders are a very pragmatic people.

We saw something that wasnt right and we acted on it, and I can only speak to that experience, she said.

When we saw something like that happen, everyone said never again, and so it was incumbent on us as politicians to respond to that.

Now, we have legitimate needs for guns in our country, for things like pest control and to protect our biodiversity but you dont need a military-style semi-automatic to do that.

In the wake of the 2019 shooting, New Zealand banned almost all semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles. The law change was passed near-unanimously, with a single dissenting vote. Speaking at the time, Ardern said: I could not fathom how weapons that could cause such destruction and large-scale death could have been obtained legally in this country.

Ardern told Colbert New Zealands current gun control situation was imperfect and there was still work to be done.

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New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern responds to Texas school shooting - The Guardian US

It comes after the Prime Minister was forced to defend the Government's one off payment aimed at helping low and middle-income Kiwis earlier in the show.

Last week Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced the 2022 Budget - which included a one-off $350 payment for the roughly 2.1 million Kiwis who earn less than $70,000 a year.

The payment is one of several measures introduced by the Government to try to mitigate high inflation and the ever-increasing cost of living.

But the payment was attacked by the Opposition, which highlighted Treasury advice that warned against the payment and described it as a "poor mechanism for supporting households with a longer-term problem".

The policy is part of the Government's $1 billion response to skyrocketing inflation in the Budget.

It says Treasury "recommended against progressing a broad-based payment, instead recommending investigating a more targeted form of support to lower-income households".

But Ardern defended the policy and its timeline saying it was a short term measure aimed at helping Kiwis struggling with the cost of living crisis.

She acknowledged the $350 payment won't solve everything but said it's designed to "take the hard edges" off.

"We know it is not a solution for everything but it is designed to help Kiwis get through the latter part of the year where we expect inflation to start easing."

The Prime Minister also hit out at the National Party, saying the Government decided to introduce the payment because it won't be inflationary, unlike National's proposed tax cuts.

"The reason we have decided to do something that is targeted and short term is because Treasury also raised their potential for the payment, if it was long term, to have an inflationary impact - to actually make the problem worse. We didn't want to do that either.

"That's why unlike the National Party their proposal gives less to lower and middle-income New Zealanders but also would be inflationary because it is not targeted in [the] short term so that's why we designed this alternative."

The National Party is proposing increasing the tax thresholds resulting in tax cuts. But the policy has been criticised because the richest Kiwis would save thousands a year while most minimum wage workers would only get a few extra dollars a week.

Read more:

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says Kiwis will likely have to wait until next year for wage growth to exceed inflation - Newshub

Nazanin Tabatabaee/AP

Australia has said so long to ScoMo.

ANALYSIS: Not even two years ago Scott Morrison was riding high on the back of Covid-19. But as the results from the Australian federal election rolled in last night they issued a stark warning for New Zealand Labour: beware the perils of Covid incumbency.

Leading into the poll yesterday, the polls were pointing to a victory for the Australian Labor Party and its leader, Anthony Albanese.

Both leaders were very unpopular, but Morrisons personal popularity had taken a dive in the latest Newspoll, published by The Australian newspaper on Friday. Albanese was tracking at -5% net favourability while Morrison was -13% net.

The reasons given for ScoMos unpopularity are many and varied, including the fact that the centre-right Liberal-National Coalition that he leads have been in Government for nine years across three separate prime ministers.

READ MORE:* Australian election 2022: Anthony Albanese and Labor oust PM Scott Morrison * Asylum seeker boat stopped off Christmas Island as Morrison trumpets border security on election day* Australian election 2022: Democracy sausage under threat as millions vote early

Perhaps in a sign of desperation, Morrison revealed when he went to vote that an asylum seeker boat had been intercepted off Australian waters. Australias hard-nosed border policy has been a political asset for the Coalition for years.

The issues, however, are brutally similar to those being faced by Labour here in New Zealand: post-Covid inflation, supply shortages, high fuel prices and a numbing tiredness in an electorate sick of Covid-19s rules regulations, disruption and privations.

ROBERT KITCHIN/Stuff

Voters smiled on Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for her management of the pandemic but has the tide turned?

However, because of the relative size of Australias economy, those pinch points which are being seen in New Zealand are less acute, so far at least. Even the Reserve Bank of Australia, which hiked its official cash rate target to 0.35% is still a way shy of Adrian Orrs cash rate of 1.5%.

Courtesy of Covid, Morrison, as with Jacinda Ardern, became overexposed with an electorate who first saw him as a decisive leader, to one who was increasingly seen as shifty and do-nothing. Voters can be fickle beasts: in the broad scheme of things, Australias management of Covid-19 was not particularly better or worse than New Zealands. Politicians tend to get thanked for jobs well done before people ask: whats next?

Covid-19 threw out the decades-long rules of conventional politics. Lockdown restrictions, massive debt run-ups, wage support and the like may have saved hospital systems from being overrun, but for Morrison, the political bill has come due.

The reality is that Australia's prosperity has been bankrolled by the huge capital formation that took place during the mining investment boom of the 2000s and early 2010s. Iron ore, coking coal and liquefied natural gas exports underwrite state government Budgets and the Australian federal tax take.

This has been the case since John Howards prime ministership, which ended in 2007. Morrison, the ultimate political operator, has done little to improve on this situation.

The only creative policy pitched during this election campaign has been allowing first-time homebuyers to take up to $A50,000 in superannuation out to put towards a home.

Mark Baker/AP

Outgoing Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison conceded defeat overnight.

Australian Labor, the creator of the super system, which is largely controlled by union-controlled industry super funds, is dead against the idea.

For New Zealand, the result victory for Labor and Anthony Albanese is neither particularly good or bad news.

The likely defining aspect of the relationship over the coming years will cover geo-strategic issues: the rules-based international order, managing China's rise and furtive forays into the Pacific, and the war in Ukraine.

The whole campaign has been a doleful affair. After losing in 2019 with loads of ambitious left-wing policies, Labor this time took a small target strategy: the ScoMo lite.

And, at the time this went to print, it looks to have paid off, though the rise of the Greens and Independents in key seats revealed a level of unease with both the major parties.

But it does sound a warning for the Government here. Australia has been more or less well-governed through Covid, as has New Zealand. But with economic storm clouds gathering, a middling Budget and after two years of frenetic Government and relentless media exposure, the public here could be tiring as well.

Read the original:

What the Australian election could be telling Jacinda Ardern - Stuff

Rallies have been held across the country on Monday to put pressure on the Government for better pay for care and support workers - including outside the Prime Minister's Mt Albert office.

Many of the 65,000 workers across the country are earning little over the minimum wage and staff retention and recruitment are getting impossible - especially as Australia beckons with better pay and working conditions.

They chanted and rallied for more pay. Low wages and workforce shortages are pushing many care and support workers to breaking point.

What looked like 100 care workers stood across the road from Jacinda Ardern's office behind a long barrier made out of road cones.

An E t union spokesperson told Newshub the decision for holding the rally outside the Prime Minister's office was because she is the highest decision-maker.

Mental Health support worker Christie Cox said the sector is running on a "baseline of burnout and emotional exhaustion".

Public Service Association's Tracie Palmer said better pay needs to come now.

"We're hearing that people are borrowing money to get petrol in their car, to go to work, we need to pay these people properly."

They're a team of 65,000 looking after some of the highest-needs in the country - those dealing with addiction, old age, mental health, disabilities and patients on palliative care.

They are the worst-paid sector working in health and their pay rates, set by law, are about to expire.

They want a $7 increase per hour, but the Government has offered 70 cents.

"It's shocking, it's not even half of inflation and it's not enough to keep us in the jobs that we love," Cox added.

Many of those who rallied in Wellington today share the same disappointment.

"It just guts me, there is nothing more important than this work," one said.

"The bottom rate is now lower than the living wage, bear in mind many of these workers are part-time, it's largely women," another told Newshub.

There are fears if the pay doesn't increase sufficiently, many will leave the sector or travel abroad. Some employers already have a 20 percent vacancy rate.

"Passion does not pay my bills. I love my job with everything that I have but it doesn't afford me the ability to care for myself," Cox said.

The sector said they're running out of time to keep and recruit staff to look after some of this country's most vulnerable.

Read more:

Care and support workers rally outside Jacinda Ardern's Auckland office in nationwide protest for better pay - Newshub