Venkat Raman
Auckland, February 2, 2022
From private gatherings, public meetings and talkback shows and letters to editors to opinion polls, the voice of the people is becoming louder and clearer: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, we have had enough. Let us return home; open the borders to stranded migrants; help our families reunite; support businesses that are failing and closing down; our confidence in you is waning; do not test our patience anymore.’
The latest 1News-Kantar Poll released on January 27, 2022, showed that Ms Ardern’s popularity has slumped to its lowest level since she became the Prime Minister in 2017.
The results demonstrate the growing criticism of her Covid-19 response and increasing doubts about the economy, with her rating as the Preferred Prime Minister declining to 35%.
There is no immediate threat to her office- at the current level of public support, she would be able to win with the support of coalition partners in the next general election in 2023.
The resurgence of National with Luxon
Christopher Luxon, who was elected Leader of the National Party just two months ago, has a Preferred PM rating of 17%, up by 13% from the previous poll.
The National has narrowed the gap with Labour by five-point with the tally current at 32% and 40% respectively.
No doubt, public opinion can change quickly as it did three years ago. Ms Ardern faced a decline in popularity in late 2019 with only 36% as Preferred PM but soared to 63% ahead of the general election held on October 17, 2020.
But since then, Ms Ardern’s style of functioning, subjecting Auckland, the country’s biggest city and the economic engine to more than 100 days of lockdown, closure of borders to even New Zealanders causing hardships and the refusal to allow hundreds of migrants stranded overseas for the past two years have all turned into public resentment.
There has also been dissatisfaction with tough border policies that make it hard for overseas-based Kiwis to return home, although Ms Ardern’s defenders point out the country has had only 52 virus deaths in a population of five million.
Bad news compounds
The latest data on inflation has been bad news for the government. The annual inflation, placed at 5.9%, is the highest in 30 years and ordinary New Zealanders are already feeling the pinch of the sliding dollar value in terms of the goods and services that can be purchased. House prices skyrocketed by more than 28% in 2021, locking many of the young families who form part of Ms Ardern’s core support out of the dream of owning their own home.
Indian Newslink will run a series of articles, analyses and reports in the ensuing issues, bringing to the fore the issues of concern to the people of New Zealand in general and the readership of this newspaper in particular.
