After becoming the sole Labor Party candidate, police and education minister Chris Hipkins will succeed Jacinda Ardern as prime minister. Following Ardern’s abrupt departure, Labor MPs must endorse the senior politician on Sunday to become the 41st prime minister. “The Labor Party caucus will convene at 1pm [00:00 GMT] on Sunday to approve the nomination and confirm Chris Hipkins as Party Leader,” senior party member Duncan Webb announced on Saturday.
After being named minister for COVID-19 in November 2020, 44-year-old Hipkins became a household name leading the government’s pandemic response. Hipkins, who is minister for police, education, and public service and House of Representatives leader, will lead his party in the October 14 general election. Labor is behind in public polls and has been criticized for rising prices, poverty, and violence. On Thursday, Ardern, a worldwide progressive leader, abruptly resigned less than three years after winning a second term in a landslide election. After leading the country through natural catastrophes, the COVID-19 epidemic, and its worst terror incident, Ardern, 42, said she no longer had “enough in the tank” to continue. Ardern “experienced a degree of hostility and animosity” that was “unprecedented in our country,” according to former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark. With 14 years in parliament, her replacement is trusted. Hipkins is “sensible, pleasant, tough and capable,” according to political journalist Josie Pagani. Hipkins’s nomination was met with silence by the National Party. The right-wing ACT Party encouraged him to “deliver on substance instead than dusting New Zealand with spin,” criticizing his party’s welfare, food, and labor market records. “End poverty, take significant climate action and safeguard our natural wildlife,” the Green Party urged.
Hipkins’s selection ended speculation that Minister of Justice Kiri Allan, one of Labor’s senior Maori MPs, might become the first Maori prime minister. On Friday, a Horizon Research snap poll acquired by local media organization Stuff revealed that Hipkins was the most popular possible candidate, with 26% of respondents supporting him. A Taxpayers’ Union-Curia survey issued on Friday showed Labor’s popularity decreasing to 31.7 percent, with 37.2 percent supporting the National Party.
