What the resignation of New Zealand's inspirational prime minister means

New Zealand’s former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern hugs friends and colleagues
at her farewell to the nation as leader. Image: DAWN/AFP

By DAVID ROBIE for IDN-InDepth News

AOTEAROA New Zealand has been shaken to the core by the sudden resignation of one of its most iconic and revered prime ministers amid a fierce controversy over misogyny and death threats stirred by the global coronavirus pandemic.

Jacinda Ardern, the world’s youngest female prime minister at 37 when she was elected in 2017 on a stardust wave of “Jacinda-mania”, stepped aside on January 19 after emotional scenes at her last official function wrapped in a traditional Māori feathered cloak at the historic Ratana church.

It is now less than a fortnight after her resignation caught the nation by surprise and has thrown this year’s general election due on October 14 wide open.

Ardern told New Zealanders that after five and a half years as leader of the left-of-centre Labour Party and with the biggest mandate in modern times, she “no longer had enough in the tank to do the job justice”.

Her party had been trailing in opinion polls in the face of a revived conservative National Party led by former airline executive Christopher Luxon and the right-wing ACT party, but she was still the most preferred prime minister in spite of her eroding popularity.

PIMA takes on challenge to revive Pasifika media advocacy

Logo design from PIMA's 10th anniversary conference.

By Michael Sergel (thanks to Pacific Media Watch)

SAMOAN Language Week celebrates the language and culture of the 1 in 20 New Zealanders who trace their ancestry to the islands of Samoa, at a time when there are more Samoan stories being told from Samoan perspectives than ever before.

But there are still many stories that go unreported, and the organisation set up to promote a Pacific presence in the New Zealand media faces an uncertain future.

The Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA) was forced to reconsider its own viability at its annual general meeting in April, due to a lack of interest in committee positions and a low attendance from its 90 members.

Outgoing secretary Sandra Kailahi, one of the founders of PIMA, told the meeting that a new committee would have to step forward if the organisation was to continue to exist.

That interim committee has been formed, and chair Will 'Ilolahia has asked members to give PIMA “one more go” at being an effective Pacific representation in the media industry.

The Fiji junta, an insider on censorship and cross-cultural reporting

CENSORSHIP and the assault on human rights and freedom of expression in Fiji are featured in the latest edition of Pacific Journalism Review being launched at the NZ on Air diversity conference in New Zealand this week.

The AUT Pacific Media Centre-based publication, New Zealand's only peer-reviewed international media research journal, publishes a special article by an "insider" on the military regime's political and social "reforms".

The 246-page edition, themed around "Diversity, identity and the media" issues, analyses the junta that has dealt an unprecedented "mortal blow" to press freedom in the South Pacific's most crucial country for regional cooperation.

The insider article, "Fragments from a Fiji coup diary", concludes that the New Zealand government needs to have secret contacts with the Suva regime to help investigate corruption and to help restore the country on the road towards democracy.

In other commentaries, Dr Murray Masterton analyses "culture clash" problems facing foreign correspondents and warns against arrogance by Western journalists when reporting the region. Television New Zealand's Sandra Kailahi examines the Pasifika media and Scoop co-editor Selwyn Manning looks at strategic directions in Asia-Pacific geopolitical reporting.

Malcolm Evans contributes a frothy profile of global political cartooning - and also the cover caricature of Fiji's military strongman Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama.

Research articles include demographics and independent cross-cultural reporting, media diversity and a NZ Human Rights Commission seminar, the "Asian Angst" controversy and xenophobia over Chinese migration, a Lake Taupo air space media case study, the Clydesdale report deconstructed and New Zealand women's magazines and gossip.

Bill Rosenberg provides the second of two annual New Zealand media ownership and trends surveys compiled for PJR.

"This edition provides some challenging and fresh insights into diversity reporting in New Zealand, from Fiji to Asian stereotypes," says the managing editor, Associate Professor David Robie. "But it also celebrates some important achievements."

A strong review section includes books about the dark side of the pro-independence movement and media in Tonga, terrorism and e-policies in the Asia-Pacific region, conflict reporting, the making of a US president, editing and design in New Zealand and an extraordinary dissident Burmese political cartoonist.

• Subscriptions to Pacific Journalism Review (two editions a year)

Journalism does matter - and the scribes are defending it!

Top marks to Brent Edwards, Simon Collins and the EPMU union team for the excellent "journalism matters" conference at the weekend. Simon described it as: "There has been nothing like it in my 31 years as a journalist." A solid action plan came out of the talkfest on Sunday with a few challenges ahead - check them out. Top marks also to Mike Kilpatrick and his Te Waha Nui team from AUT (six student journos drove from Auckland to Wellington for the weekend to cover the event). As was expected, especially after Chris Trotter's gloomy preview, the mainstream media barely noticed the summit, apart from a short NZ Herald piece, Audrey Young's blog and some random radio spots.

My own reflections were jotted down on the first day, Chris Warren's speech was inspiring and Jeremy Rose had some good stuff on Sunday. So watch for some feisty coverage in TWN this Friday. Unsurprisingly, I liked Judy McGregor's swipe at the nation's newsrooms for their "pitifully low" Maori, Pacific Island and Asian numbers - "this has been a structural, systemic problem for decades". She handed bouquets to Fairfax for its new internship diversity ratio and suggested that only Waiariki and AUT University media schools would pass an audit for diversity of selection. I'll offer a plug here for AUT - it has had a Pasifika diversity scholarship in place for several years now in partnership with PIMA - and last year the first scholarship BCS graduate was snapped up by Radio NZ, a masters graduate joined Niu FM and another masters graduate started his own Tongan-language newspaper. Plus there is also AUT's Pacific Media Centre initiative promoting independent journalism research. Cook Islands scribe Jason Brown rapped the journalists' "closed door" democracy with a criticism of the use of Chatham House Rules.

"Politics threaten media progress"
In the Christchurch Press, anti-union columnist Karl du Fresne launched into an attack on the politics of the conference. He singled out for special criticism "self-proclaimed socialist" Martin Hirst (for supporting journalists as agents of social change) and keynote speaker Equal Opportunities Commissioner Judy McGregor for being a "trenchant critic of the industry that once employed her". Pictured: Conference convenor Brent Edwards, Radio NZ's political editor and EPMU media council chair. Photo: Jimmy Joe/EPMU.

• Martin Hirst on 95bfm
• Scoop coverage
• EPMU picture gallery
• Judy Mcgregor's 12 point plan for a better media
• Bill Rosenberg's open letter