{"id":2394,"date":"2023-01-23T06:07:27","date_gmt":"2023-01-22T17:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=2394"},"modified":"2023-01-23T06:07:27","modified_gmt":"2023-01-22T17:07:27","slug":"chris-hipkins-becomes-nzs-new-prime-minister-there-are-two-ways-it-can-go-from-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=2394","title":{"rendered":"Chris Hipkins becomes NZ\u2019s new prime minister \u2013 there are two ways it can go from here"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Following the surprise resignation of Jacinda Ardern on January 19, the New Zealand Labour Party already has a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/political\/482846\/new-prime-minister-chris-hipkins-to-address-nation\">new leader: Chris Hipkins.<\/a>\u00a0The handover from Ardern to Hipkins has been achieved with the same efficiency as the handover from Andrew Little to Ardern in 2017. But will it be as successful?<\/p>\n<p>Hipkins entered parliament in 2008 &#8211; along with Ardern. Under Ardern&#8217;s leadership, he held ministerial portfolios in education, police and public services, and was Leader of the House.<\/p>\n<p>His role as education minister includes a (not altogether successful) centralisation of all the country&#8217;s polytechnics under one administrative umbrella &#8211; a form of restructuring typical of this Labour government.<\/p>\n<p>He distinguished himself during the Covid pandemic as a hard-working and competent leader who contributed a much-needed clarity and common sense. He&#8217;s a dependable and intelligent politician who doesn&#8217;t mind being an attack dog when it&#8217;s called for.<\/p>\n<p>As leader, however, Hipkins now faces an uphill battle, with his party trailing the opposition National Party in the most recent published polls. But he lacks Ardern&#8217;s charisma.<\/p>\n<p>In 2017, there was an instant &#8220;Jacindamania&#8221; effect when she took the party leadership, and Labour&#8217;s polling shot up. One simply can&#8217;t imagine a &#8220;Chris-mania&#8221;, however. But maybe that&#8217;s not a bad thing right now.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>SOURCE -RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following the surprise resignation of Jacinda Ardern on January 19, the New Zealand Labour Party already has a\u00a0new leader: Chris Hipkins.\u00a0The handover from Ardern to Hipkins has been achieved with the same efficiency as the handover from Andrew Little to Ardern in 2017. But will it be as successful? Hipkins entered parliament in 2008 &#8211; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2394"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2396,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394\/revisions\/2396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}