Jacinda Ardern, who took over the centre-left party’s leadership just seven weeks ago, has turned around what looked like a hopeless election for Labor, surging ahead in the polls for much of the campaign.
Describing herself to SBS World News as “earnest, with a warm heart”, the 37-year-old has dazzled with her frankness, star power and social policies, harnessing a mood for change in the country which has been led by the centre-right National Party for almost nine years.
Despite being dismissed by her Nationals Party opponent, 55-year-old Prime Minister Bill English, as “stardust” that was now "settling", Ms Ardern told SBS Senior Correspondent Nastasya Tay she has the experience to do the job.
“When it comes to experience, I’ve been in politics for nine years. I’ve been in parliament longer than the last National leader had been when he took over the leadership,” she said.
“But I do accept that for my age that makes me relatively young in a political context; my counterparts do tend to be older.
“I think that comes with benefits as well. It means I don’t do politics as usual, I’m very focussed on collaboration where there are opportunities to do so and I have a real vision of what we should be offering the next generation.”
Ms Ardern said a key policy difference between Labor and the Nationals is on housing, where Labor want to ban what she called “foreign speculators” from buying up property in the country of 4.7 million people, and to invest in building more homes and infrastructure to meet the population growth.
“We haven’t got the basics right. We’ve got people living in cars, increasing homelessness, unaffordable and inaccessible health care. We’ve got to get back to the things that make New Zealand a really fabulous place to live and bring up your kids. Get the basics right. Once we do that then, New Zealanders will really flourish,” she said.
She said Labor’s policy is to double the country’s refugee intake quota.
But despite a surge in popularity that has seen the country gripped by “Jacindamania”, the most recent polls late this week showed Labor slip back behind the National Party, after the government ran what Labor called a “negative campaign” suggesting Labor’s policy promises were uncosted and unaffordable.
Ms Ardern angrily rejected this in the final leader's debate on Wednesday, and when pressed on the point, Mr English.
Mr English stressed his record as long-time finance minister, who has presided over a period of strong economic growth for the country under his prime ministerial predecessor John Key.
Jacinda Ardern and Prime Minister English (right) during the Vote 2017 2nd Leaders Debate on September 20, 2017 in Auckland, New Zealand. Source: Getty Images AsiaPac
The polls suggest that either party may have to form a coalition with the populist, nationalist New Zealand First party to win government, and both leaders have pointedly refused to rule out that possibility.
Ms Ardern said the youth vote would be significant in the outcome.
“We’ve certainly had the suggestion that there’s a lot of youth support out there. We know that traditionally they’ve been less likely to vote. Time will tell whether or not this election will be any different.”
She counts Labor’s chances of winning Saturday as “really good. This will come down to turnout though. If New Zealanders here and New Zealanders abroad show up to the polls, we’ll change the government.”
