Ardern’s critics bid adieu to ‘flake emoter’ PM

Ben McKay | April 6, 2023

Jacinda Ardern has been lashed with gender-based criticism on her exit from politics, labelled a “flake” and “not clever enough” to hold New Zealand’s highest office.

The former prime minister gave her valedictory address on Wednesday, speaking of combining motherhood and leadership, urging others to have confidence to follow her path.

On Thursday morning, New Zealand’s top-rating broadcaster, Mike Hosking, likened her prime ministership to a bad date.

“It’s like the first date. You turn up on your first date. Very pretty. And then she opens her mouth,” he said.

“You get sucked in by the superficial, by the facade. We were catfished.”

The breakfast radio host is one of Ms Ardern’s greatest detractors, telling listeners Ms Ardern “quit because she had become toxic”, rather than her cited reason, a lack of energy after five eventful years.

“Essentially, she was an emoter. She talked a lot and had a lot of chat, a lot of meetings, a lot of thoughts and a lot of thought bubbles,” he said.

Mr Hosking and Ms Ardern fell out in 2021 when the Labour leader canned her weekly slot on his breakfast show.

Like many on the right, Mr Hosking argues her government was one of non-delivery, failing on its own priorities such as child poverty and climate emissions.

Ms Ardern argues tens of thousands of children were lifted from poverty by her welfare increases; detractors point to other indicators showing flat levels of hardship. 

While Ms Ardern’s government built a framework for climate action, New Zealand continues to import coal for power generation, and emissions have stayed doggedly high.

Critics also point to elevated crime and a recession-bound economy under the groaning weight of high inflation.

Mr Hosking said Ms Ardern was “a flake”, and rubbished suggestions from other PMs she would be remembered as one of New Zealand’s great leaders.

“She was OK at best and couldn’t hack it so she walked,” he said.

“We are human beings. We do feel things and many of us are very sensitive and I thought it was good to see her put words to that.”

Ms Ardern’s prime parliamentary critic is David Seymour, of the right-wing libertarian ACT party, the only party leader to skip Ms Ardern’s valedictory.

Speaking with AAP, Mr Seymour praised Ms Ardern for legalising abortion but otherwise “its hard to think of a metric where New Zealand in 2023 was better than New Zealand at the end of 2017”.

“We could all sign up to her intentions but we were all disappointed by her outcomes and that is a real tragedy,” he said.

Mr Seymour was far less kind on a podcast with Max Key, the son of former PM Sir John Key, while rubbishing the idea Ms Ardern was swept up in an international conspiracy.

“Don’t worry folks. She’s not going to do a conspiracy. She’s too dumb,” he said.

“I don’t think she was clever enough to be prime minister.”

Mr Seymour denied those comments were gendered, saying he had also called male politicians “dumb”, though he could not cite any examples.

In contrast, deputy opposition leader Nicola Willis praised Ms Ardern’s openness in her valedictory.

“I am grateful to the former prime minister that she did admit that vulnerability which we all actually feel as politicians,” she said.

The departing PM also has her critics on the left.

The Greens held portfolios in both the Labour-led governments but many in the party saw Ms Ardern as too centrist, and too timid to make inroads on inequality.

Economist and journalist Bernard Hickey said Ms Ardern’s legacy as a progressive reformer was “mixed at best”.

“They chose low debt, low taxes and high land prices over more affordable housing and reducing climate emissions, having promised to do all of those things,” he wrote in The Kaka.

“Her Labour government’s policies from 2017 to 2023 made home owners, business owners and the Crown itself $NZ923 billion ($A867 billion) richer.

“None of that wealth went to renters, who have more than tripled their demand for food parcels and for social housing.”