2023 — it’s a year of two games

Published date21 January 2023
Publication titleWeekend Herald
The new year is still young, but past and present challenges have already claimed their first scalp

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has decided that the going is too tough, leaving us leaderless just three weeks into election year.

There are plenty of people, including the Prime Minister herself, recording her outstanding record and lamenting her departure.

However, she leaves behind an economy in tatters, a divided nation and her flagship policies such as housing, child poverty and climate change no further advanced.

Thursday’s news has thrown the first curveball at those of us seeking to anticipate what lies ahead this year. The PM’s departure will go down as a momentous event, as did that of fellow Labour Party prime minister David Lange.

So where to now? This year was always going to be politically fascinating. It just became even more interesting. The Labour Party will elect a new leader and that person will lead the country into the next election. They’ll be taking on a potential recession and a series of crises from health to education, crime and the soaring cost of living.

Beyond the Prime Minister’s departure and the election of her successor, it’s a year that will be remembered by New Zealanders for a couple of major events. The Rugby World Cup will kick off in France in September, and for the first time in recent memory the All Blacks will not go in as favourites. Nevertheless, we will enter the tournament with high hopes and the nation will become distracted for seven weeks while the game we love is played on the opposite side of the world.

That distraction will be welcome news for our Government, which has now decided that the other major event will be scheduled during the rugby tournament. The election date has been set for October 14, just two weeks before the World Cup finishes. Perhaps they’ve chosen that date in the hope that our team will still be in the tournament and voters’ minds will be full of All Black hysteria.

Despite being as keen as anyone on our national sport, I’m expecting the election to be the more exciting of the two contests. As many commentators have noted, I’ve never seen the country so divided on political matters. I’ve never seen so many petitions, protest groups or disgruntled commentators bemoaning the Government’s policies. Such is the concern about the government record, we’re even unhappy with the performance of the opposition parties, who many suggest have failed to hold the failing Government to account.

The...

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