THE FADING STAR OF JACINDA ARDERN

The Daily Mail

The growing domestic  discontent with Jacinda Ardern's rigidly centrist government has now been noticed by an international mainstream media once enamoured with her. The Daily Mail is reporting that the Labour-led government has failed to tackle New Zealand's 'poverty crisis.'

PRIME MINISTER JACINDA ARDERN has traded on her international reputation as a progressive political leader. The international media have categorised her as one of a new wave of  'young and progressive' political leaders and her positive international reputation was boosted again in the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque shootings.

In September last year Charlotte Graham-McLay wrote for the New York Times that Arden had 'become a subject of global fascination for her progressive values..'

But the international media's love affair with Ardern obscured the reality that she has led a rigidly centrist government that has not delivered on its election campaign promises. Her domestic appeal has begun to wane as Ardern has shown herself committed not to transformation but to the maintenance of the political and economic status quo.

The fading of Ardern's 'feel good factor' has now become to seep into a international mainstream media once enamoured with her. The Australian Press Association has just delivered a report for  The Daily Mail that addresses the Labour-led government's failure to tackle what it describes as a growing 'poverty crisis'. The same story, by Ben McKay, has also appeared in Australia's Newcastle Herald and the Sydney Morning Herald. The story observes:

'Figures from the Ministry of Social Development reveal the dark side of New Zealand's have-and-have-not society.

This winter, 29,000 emergency housing grants were made - doubling last year's tally - at a cost of NZ$41 million ($A38 million).

Hardship grants for food have also soared. More than half a million food grants were made in the three months to September, costing NZ$167 million ($A155 million), a figure that's tripled over five years.'

The report also says that despite the growing level of poverty and hardship, the Government has so far declined to raise benefit levels, even though its own welfare working group said that such a rise was now a matter of urgency.

Another story in the Newcastle Herald reports on how 'unemployed New Zealander Carla realised how she didn't have enough food or fuel to make it through the week.'