Love and Hate: How Jacinda Ardern polarised a nation

Monday, 31 March 2025

This was a series that was originally published in March. We’re re-promoting it on the launch of Ardern’s memoir.

At Harvard University on the outskirts of Boston, Jacinda Ardern walks around the campus like any other academic. She has two fellowships to the Ivy League college and has a handful of governance roles with numerous charities. Her life now is a far cry from what it was eight years ago when, at age 37, she was given the ultimate hospital pass: the leadership of a party that had been infighting for years, was polling poorly and had an election to contest in just 7 weeks.

In this five-part series, senior journalist Lloyd Burr looks back at this fascinating, turbulent, and tumultuous time in New Zealand politics and investigates the dramatic rise of Ardern, her fall and how the country fell out of love with her. This is part one.

August 1, 2017 was the day Jacinda Ardern’s life changed forever, so too did the course of New Zealand’s history.

Andrew Little had resigned as leader of the Labour Party and the caucus unanimously selected Ardern to replace him.

It was the ultimate hospital pass. The party was polling at 24% and the general election was just seven weeks away. She’d not long been deputy leader after being helicoptered in to replace Annette King as deputy leader in a hope to boost polls.

It hadn’t worked and Little thought Labour would have a better chance with Ardern in the driver’s seat. He was right.

What eventuated was a remarkable change in fortune for Labour, and the ascent of Ardern to the Beehive’s ninth floor.

Political from a young age

Ardern credits her Aunty Marie for introducing her to the Labour Party in New Plymouth in the 90s. Harry Duynhoven was the local MP and Ardern became a volunteer for his campaigns, being promoted to his private secretary when he became an associate minister under Helen Clark.

She was soon poached by Phil Goff, and again by then-Prime Minister Helen Clark. Ardern helped come up with Labour’s 2005 election-winning policy of interest free student loans.

Becoming an MP

In 2007, Ardern was working in London for British Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. She also held the presidency of the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY) - an organisation of aspiring left-wing politicians.

Also in London at the time was another young liberal Kiwi: James Shaw.

“The first time I met her was at a sushi bar in a London railway station,” Shaw says. “She told me [of her IUSY presidency] and I said ‘I didn't know they let socialists into the Labour Party anymore’, which if I'd realised how life was going to pan out, I might not have said,” he laughs.

During the build up to the 2008 New Zealand election, Ardern was Labour’s roving London candidate with the role of getting expat Kiwis to vote for Labour. Shaw did the same for the Greens.

“Both of us were basically trying to get in touch with the Kiwi expat community and get them registered to vote,” says Shaw, who was number 36 on the Green Party’s list, an unelectable spot. Ardern was number 20.

“Grant [Robertson] actually stood aside from the list because he was quite confident about [winning] Wellington Central. So he actually kind of made his slot available to her.

“Then she suddenly packed up and zipped home,” Shaw says. Ardern became an MP in 2008 alongside fellow newbies Robertson and Chris Hipkins, who would go on to be two of her most senior ministers a decade later.

‘Gracinda’

The first glimpse of Ardern’s leadership ambitions came after Labour’s election hammering in 2014 under leader David Cunliffe. He eventually resigned and it initiated a leadership race. Robertson put his hand up to be leader, and Ardern stood as his running mate.

The duo were dubbed ‘Gracinda’ by the press pack and came incredibly close to winning but were pipped at the post by Andrew Little by around 1%.

Mt Albert and Deputy

Ardern had long tried to be the Auckland Central MP but was pipped at the post by Nikki Kaye in both 2011 and 2014. When the seat of Mt Albert came up following the departure of David Shearer, Ardern was a sure shoo-in.

She was eventually confirmed as Labour’s candidate and was essentially contesting it alone; National boycotted it because it was too close to the 2017 general election.

“Jacinda clearly had very strong cut through,” says Little. “We made the decision then that we would work closely together.”

Ardern won Mt Albert by a landslide and the hype got many in the party thinking about ways to harness her popularity - one of those was promoting her to deputy leader, replacing veteran incumbent Annette King.

“I think [her win] was a compelling reason for it,” says Little. “There was a natural point where everybody was very comfortable with a change and Jacinda stepping up.”

Everybody except Ardern herself, who was close with King and didn’t like the idea of rolling her.

“She felt really uneasy and quite awkward about replacing someone who guided her through,” says Little. But she eventually came around to the idea and on March 7, 2017 became Little’s deputy - a role she would hold for less than 5 months.

Leadership

At the end of July 2017, the polls still weren’t going in the right direction and Andrew Little began to have doubts over his ability to get Labour into government.

“It wasn't just one poll,” Little says. “It was several polls. I had to think ‘Well, the election might only be seven weeks away but if I stepped aside, is there anybody who could lift us and give us a boost?’. I was totally confident Jacinda would be that person.

“It was very clear at the joint events that we did together that Jacinda had a kind of electrifying presence.”

One joint event was on July 26. They were at Weta Workshop and both received a text with the latest internal poll results.

“It was completely a bit of a gut punch for me,” says Little. “We got back to the office and talked to her. I said, ‘Look, I've got to really think seriously, we have to think seriously, about what happens next.’

“‘If I'm not the right person, then you're the next.’ Well now, she was deeply resistant to any change,” he says.

A week later, Little made the call to stand down as leader. “The ultimate goal is to get your team into government. And I just concluded that I wasn't going to be the one to be able to deliver that and Jacinda had a better chance,” he says.

He quit as leader on August 1 and recommended the caucus replace him with Ardern, which it did unanimously.

King remembers the day Ardern took the reins. “She walked out there and gave the most amazing press conference of any leader we’d seen since Helen Clark. She almost changed her persona immediately,” King says in her biography.

“That was probably one of the first times we saw Jacinda Ardern as the kind of communicator-in-chief,” says political reporter Jenna Lynch.

Why had it taken Labour so long to see the potential in Ardern? Because she told people she never wanted it. She’d done magazine covers talking about her anxiety, imposter syndrome, and how the leadership was never in her sights.

“I don't think she wanted the job,” says Shaw. “She really wanted to make a contribution, especially around child poverty, but I never saw any sign that she was interested in the leadership”.

Little says he was vindicated when he saw the poll results come in. “The polls on the days that followed when the numbers just took off - and the feedback from people too - suggested to me stepping aside was the right thing,” he says.

Jacindamania

While Little took some time off, Ardern hit the campaign trail and her instant appeal and popularity was quickly dubbed ‘Jacindamania’. Everywhere she went, there was a crowd of people - many younger Kiwis - wanting a chat and a selfie with her, which grew over the course of the campaign.

“National was worried and they went into attack mode,” says Lynch “They were throwing everything they could at Labour.”

One of those attacks was on Ardern’s flip-flop on a capital gains tax. Little had ruled it out, but Ardern had put it back on the table. It was kryptonite for National’s Steven Joyce whose attacks eventually saw Ardern drop the policy.

But still, the coverage and cut-through Ardern was getting was getting under the skin of veteran National MPs - like Gerry Brownlee.

“I remember Brownlee bringing down a pair of cheerleading pompoms to hand to Patrick Gower because he thought that we were going too soft on Jacinda,” recalls Lynch. “You could definitely see some panic stations happening in the National Party”.

A National MP told Andrea Vance for her book Blue Blood that Ardern was identified as National’s biggest threat from around 2015: “If they changed to her, I thought we’d be in serious trouble. And then we were.” There were even comparisons between Ardern and Princess Diana.

Ardern launched Labour’s campaign at Auckland’s Town Hall with the catch-cry ‘Let’s Do This’, and momentum continued to build as she campaigned around the country. In the numerous one-on-one debates with Prime Minster Bill English, she excelled.

“She had to step up,” says Little. “And she did it amazingly. It was totally a reflection of her impact, her reach, her communication skills, and her political judgment. She's got an amazing policy brain.”

The Greens were going through their own chaos with the resignation of co-leader Metiria Turie, but Shaw remembers seeing the electorate change with the emergence of Ardern.

“This is probably an unfair characterisation, but it was kind of a sense that the country had been run by grey white men for a while,” he says. “And here was this young, vibrant woman who was the antithesis of what the status quo was.

“With Jacinda, you had the personification of change and she is an astonishingly good communicator.”

On election night, Ardern watched the coverage from her home, wearing a pair of fluffy slippers. When the results began to settle, it was clear no one had won. National got the most votes on 46%, with Labour on 35.8%. Neither party with their allies could form a government without New Zealand First. Ardern addressed her supporters at Auckland’s Aotea Centre:

“Obviously, we hoped for better,” she said. “The final outcome of tonight’s election won’t be decided by us. It will be decided by MMP. We will do everything we can to work with any party that shares our belief that New Zealand can be better,” Ardern said.

The monarch-maker

Negotiations began the following week in Wellington. Lynch was one of those covering the talks and remembers how secretive all the parties were about them.

“Winston Peters held court in this one room, which was kind of neutral territory between where Labour were in Parliament House and where National were, still in the Beehive,” she says.

“We would sit and watch Winston go up to the room from Bowen House and then we'd have a spy looking out to see if Labour were going to see them or whether National were going to see them.”

This happened for more than three weeks, with reporters becoming delirious from the monotony of it all. MPs were chased around Wellington’s streets, in and out of car parks, and even to cafes to get a bite. It even got to the stage where Peters was filmed eating a Vietnamese Pho on Lambton Quay.

Labour’s chances were buoyed by the release of the special votes and final results, which saw them gain an extra seat and National lose two seats.

“Near the end of it,” Lynch recalls of Peters, “I think we did see him meeting with Labour a little bit more than National. But no one knew who he was going to go with.”

Little wasn’t part of Labour’s negotiation team but he had an inkling Peters was going to side with Labour.

“He was conscious of the mood for a change. He was never a great fan of John Key and although Key wasn't there at the time, I think he still felt bruised by some of the things that National ministers had said and done,” Little says.

The Greens were also in negotiation mode because Labour needed them to form a government too. Problem was, Peters refused to negotiate with the Greens - instead leaving that job to Ardern.

“I don't think he [Peters] ever thought much of the Greens. He viewed us as essentially an extension to the Labour Party, which isn't true. But I was careful to try and maintain respectful language.

“He really saw it as very much a two-way agreement which actually is not true, right? Because our votes were needed for everything,” says Shaw, adding that’s when Ardern’s mediation skills really shone.

“The thing I most admire about Jacinda and her team is the fact that they were able to have these two-way conversations. Winston insisted not only that she not tell us about what they negotiated with New Zealand First, but he didn't want to know what we were negotiating with her.”

Vance says Ardern’s approach to the talks was all about respect for Peters. They were dressed impeccably, they showed him respect, they brought and shared biscuits, didn’t mention ‘the Greens’, and crucially didn’t dangle certain portfolios in front of him straight off the bat like the Nats apparently had.

Just before 7pm on October 18, Winston took to the Beehive Theatrette to announce his decision. He hadn’t told Labour or National what his decision would be. “We all sat with baited breath at the live broadcast of his decision,” says Little.

“Our perception was that the majority of people in this country did want change. We have responded to that,” Peters said in his speech. “In the end we chose a coalition Government of New Zealand First and the New Zealand Labour Party”.

On October 26, Ardern and her government were officially sworn in by the Governor-General.

In part two, senior journalist Lloyd Burr looks at the terror and tragedies that defined Ardern’s first term as Prime Minister.