Thanks, Jacinda Ardern

Ardern has been in New Zealand over the Christmas holidays. Plus: 200,000 Kiwis have departed New Zealand since Luxon's government

Jacinda Ardern spent the Christmas holiday period in Aotearoa New Zealand

Today, I am thinking of former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

I remember the vitriol, out of context stories, and the cultivated hate towards her. That’s still very much alive of course, but it’s also a fact that poll after poll finds Ardern the most popular politician in Aotearoa New Zealand.

And there are lies too — many lies that landed on her shoulders, and which so many Kiwis bought into to varying degrees.

Media representation was also imbalanced

Coverage of Ardern versus the absence of coverage on Tim Jago/David Seymour and the ACT sex scandals is stark and clear Source: Daily Indignation

Besides our media, a global Microsoft study found Kiwis consumed 30% more disinformation from Russian troll farms than the United States and Australia during Covid, reaching a peak just before the 2022 Wellington protests.

MFAT knew this unequivocally, and so too Cabinet, but against a corporate media and global social media machine, Ardern and NZ officials were likely helpless.

It’s not that all the people who had concerns or reservations were wrong, but rather that bad actors likely manipulated it to the extremes.

Hit pieces on Ardern swept through right wing media outlets including Rupert Murdoch’s “The Australian” and “Fox News”

Nobody is perfect, and as someone who was largely uninterested in NZ politics prior to Luxon’s government, I recall losing interest with the former PM.

Yet the more I’ve come to learn about politics, the more I empathise with what Ardern foresaw and endured with class and grace, and also realise how much of it was driven by mis-perception.

I Hate Labour! But...Wait...Why?

When researching 3 Waters, I learned that Ardern used her political capital to protect NZ’s water assets from privatisation, while being lampooned by the left and right for wanting a super majority of 60% to privatise water assets. Even if the attempt was clumsy, I think they meant well.

You see, she and her Cabinet likely knew what National/ACT was up to, and I think they were trying their best to get in front of it.

Luxon and Seymour opposed this, just as they had oppposed Labour’s then efforts to make electoral donations transparent, and on national assets, Luxon accused Ardern of “trying to scare the public”, promising that National had zero interest in privatisation.

Luxon (2022) -

“I’ve said to you before, we don’t see any need for privatisation for other assets….

We’ve been clear from day one, we’re not interested in privatisation of these assets. We want them returned to local control and ownership.”

Yet in 2024, after becoming PM, Luxon made it clear he wants every single asset and industry in New Zealand opened up to privatisation options - including water.

And by 2025, he’d upped that to NZ asset sales were a necessary “mature conversation” and any 2026 electoral win would mean National had carte blanche to privatise what they saw fit.

i.e Labour was right, but failed in their bid to inhibit water privatisation due to public pressure from all sides.

Ardern also had to put up with a deceptive, sly minority party leader, David Seymour, whom she called an “arrogant prick” - a comment she later apologised for.

Sitting here now today though:

To think that Ardern had to apologise for such accuracy….and that she had to tolerate lies and attacks from politicians like Seymour every single day…

No word from Seymour now that hundreds of thousands of Kiwis have left for better shores since National/ACT/NZ First took over.

In the last year alone, 124,000 have left - of those, nearly 75,000 are Kiwi citizens - that’s equivalent to the entire population of New Plymouth

ACT attack ads from 2022

"But David Seymour Said!" - Why Jacinda Ardern Was Right

The toll, with a young infant in tow, would have been unbearable for so many, and yet she remained uncomplaining through it all.

There are many who want fast, structural and concrete changes, but it also bears remembering that it was a different time, and the corrosiveness was not as broadly evident.

Ardern was also subject to different media coverage. For example, she was regularly attacked for bold ambitions around child poverty and housing. Labour did oversee 14,000 - 18,000 new homes, averaging 2700 a year. National can’t even fulfill 500 - nor do they seem to intend to, in fact capping state housing to net 600 + as part of Bishop’s “reset” plan, while stopping thousands of projects.

A promise by Nicola Willis to build 1000 social houses in Auckland also fell flat, with National only delivering ~45.

And Ardern did improve child poverty, but the headlines mainly attacked her for not reaching the stretch goals.

In contrast, the first thing National did in power was change child poverty measures - which means more children in poverty falling through the measurement cracks - then shrugging off that even then, not one child poverty target is being met.

Ardern also tried to live a principle of bipartisanship and bringing people along where she could.

No, no-one is faultless, and I’m not suggesting she is - but she had the right intention, in my view, and had to deal with major tragedies - the Christchurch terrorist event, and Covid-19 - which she earned worldwide acclaim for.

After a well deserved break, Ardern has rebounded.

She’s written a best selling book “A Different Kind of Power”, which hit best seller lists globally and domestically.

She’s represented, and advocated for New Zealand passionately and positively on the world stage.

And most recently, Ardern quietly saved a charity that aims to prevent mothers from dying from childbirth - a charity that otherwise would not have survived Trump and Elon Musk’s USAID cuts.

Source: The Independent UK January 1, 2026

I have always felt that intention and motivation matters above all in everything.

We can’t control the results, but we can control our values, choices, and our intent/motivations.

That’s why I’m thankful that there is a Prime Minister like her, as I am grateful for Helen Clark’s continued advocacy on corruption, global affairs and labour laws.

At the same time, I know that from a political perspective, none of this really has anything to do with “Jacinda”.

The former PM merely represents something and someone that the new alt-right, the powers that rule, were easily able to corral an intense hate towards, and thereby use that as their political power.

She represented something that those powers fear - someone who is organic, authentic, empathetic, holds to higher values than money and power, and can reliably lead and influence.

And it is for that reason that figures like Ardern and activist Greta Thunberg are “must take downs”.

Anyone who is effective in any way is the same, by the way: academics, environmentalists, scientists, charities, doctors, politicians, journalists, writers.

But what strong and empathetic role models like Ardern or Thunberg stand for, what they profess, the way they anticipate and speak and calculate and feel, is a primary threat to the desired world order of those that control what we see playing out before us - both here in Aotearoa New Zealand, as well as internationally.

Atlas Network, the global, libertarian network of fossil fuel, tobacco, and other related interests is reportedly anti-Indigenous rights, for the same reason: the values system of respect for land, environment, and inter-relationship.

Someone sent me a snippet today of a right wing account claiming that Jordan Rivers, a content creator and effective Kiwi left wing activist, was a “paid shill”.

I almost wanted to laugh - yeah, nah - some people just genuinely care and are talented enough to be effective.

But it’s not really about Ardern too. Because there are also many Arderns out there, any Rivers, many Emily Writes, many Anna McMartins, many Annies, many Stephanie Cullens, so many every day Kiwis and citizens of the world who deeply care for it, and want tomorrow to be a better day for more than just themselves.

As the world turns, systems collide, and countries collapse, the only thing that matters is what we hold within ourselves, and the hands we hold without. Ardern found her way to hold vulnerability, positivity and strength under a mountain of hate, deception, attacks and lies.

So therein, she showed us the meaning of endurance and positivity amidst it all.