Jacinda Ardern announces resignation

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Her poll rating has collapsed recently.
Her policies aren't working, and her promises remain unfulfilled.
She doesn't want to be seen as losing the next election.
And she has a young child to consider.

More than enough reasons for her to step down.

The Turtle...

She and the prime minister of Finland were once the Fab 2....young, female and full of compassion, optimism and hope

To answer your question, I don't think China will invade Australia at all. They can certainly be a militaristic threat in other ways, as we're currently seeing in the South China Sea. The threat to Taiwan is certainly credible, and a naval blockade of major shipping routes in our region might even be feasible. But I think your idea of a Chinese invasion of Australia is extremely unrealistic IMO.

If China demonstrate an ability and willingness to sustain a large military offensive outside of their immediate region, then I'll start feeling worried about our personal situation. But they're far from demonstrating that capability right now, and there's no indication that they're even willing to do such a thing. Besides, the United States would never allow it.

I have no problem with Australia increasing its defence spending to counter a potential military threat in our region (off-topic, but I'm keen to see what design for a nuclear sub Australia might be obtaining, controversies aside). I just don't think it'll take the form of an invasion, certainly not in the short or medium term.

No realistic threat of invasion isn't the same as no threat whatsoever, but yes, they're likely overestimating the threat which isn't uncommon with perceived existential threats.

China's got severe structural issues that will limit the scale of operations they can realistically plan to achieve.

Murihiku's answer is bloody solid, I can't add much.

This reason I suspect weighed heavily into her decision to step down. There's also the potential for a new leader to boost her party's polling numbers. It happened when Ardern replaced Andrew Little as Labour leader shortly before the 2017 election. Their party was polling badly at the time, but the change in leadership did provide a boost to their polling numbers. After the election they were able to form a coalition government with New Zealand First.

Maybe she's hoping that something similar will happen with incoming leader Chris Hipkins. He seems to be more centrist than Ardern is, and he may be able to fix some of their more pressing political problems. Hopefully with a soft heart and a harder head, as one commentator in NZ put it.

Someone honest and competent like her...resigns.

While a dishonest incompetent and outright dangerous guy (who has to be reined in by his advisors so he doesnt 'nuke north korea and claim another country did it') demands the overturn of an honest election so he can stay in office.

The OP is going to scold you for :"whataboutism", hyperpartisanship and derailing the thread
The thread is a witchunt to find fault (however trivial) in one of the few decent politicians left

That's not quite what I mean by going into hiding, I mean literally disappearing or moving somewhere without a relevant extradition treaty. To my knowledge Angela Merkel did not do that.

Of course if this happened, then some big fat scandal would be obvious - but how likely is it to actually happen?
I don't think Jacinda Ardern is guilty of anything more than any other regular politician in a developed country would be. No indication of this so far at all.

Chris Hipkins has now been formally appointed as Labour leader, replacing Jacinda Ardern. He will be sworn in as prime minister on Wednesday, ahead of his first cabinet meeting.

He's already announced a cabinet reshuffle and a refocusing of government priorities. We'll probably hear more about them in the next week or two, and see if it'll actually help his party in the upcoming election this year.

Carmel Sepuloni has been announced as incoming Deputy PM. She's currently the Minister for Arts, Culture & Heritage, and Minister for Social Development & Employment, and will be the first senior political leader of Pacific Islander heritage in NZ.

I have family friends out there who are quite sad she is stepping down. They were shocked when she got voted in but over time became pretty supportive of her.

Her humane response to the Christchurch massacre and Covid, while keeping GDP looking decent and also successes in areas like reducing child poverty won her support in areas she wouldn't have expected to.

all while raising her own young family too.

Jacinda Ardern has formally stepped down as prime minister today, and Chris Hipkins has been formally sworn in as her replacement.

BBC News: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64395447

Ardern remains an MP for now, but she's stated that she'll step down as an MP in April. Seems like an odd decision so close to the election in October. I'd have thought she'd remain in the position until at least then. A by-election to replace her wouldn't be required if she resigns less than 6 months prior to the election (from April at the earliest), although it still requires approval from 75% of the parliament.

The biggest scandal of Angela Merkel's reign was out in the open, namely her opening Germany's borders to a million Third World migrants. Other leaders in history have been publicly executed for less.



I disagree. I think we do live in "interesting times" (and I mean that in a negative sense), but that the average Westerner either can't see it or can't or won't do anything about it.

In my opinion, if the average Westerner of 100 years ago could see the treachery of the Western elites and the dystopia they are helping to create, they would be staggered (and I'm just talking here about things we know about, never mind how many filthy secrets our elites might be hiding).

On a separate note, I was just thinking again recently ... isn't it weird how the authorities still haven't released Jeffrey Epstein's client list, and nobody seems to care.

Care to share what it might be? Or hint?

We opened our borders to more and no crisis happened.
But I agree she handled it entirely wrong. With a lot of humanitarian virtue signalling, she played directly to the hands of human traffickers.

I'm much more disappointed with her whole Ostpolitik. Again with plenty of virtue signalling, she fed the monster.

Variously understood "elites" were more or less corrupt for most of the history.
An average Westerner from 100 years ago was just recently traumatized by WWI. Their elites brewed them literally a hell.

Tell me more about not realizing in how interesting times we're living