Scary munters andsuper creeps, youdidn’t get PM running

• Published date: 21 January 2023
• Publication title: Weekend Herald

But they haven’t won anything

Born losers like them will never be winners. They choose to wallow in obscurity and that’s where they’re best left, out on the margins.

If there are any winners in the wake of Thursday’s bombshell, it is the PM’s family. Clarke Gayford will get to enjoy more quality time with his partner, and the two of them can noxw focus in earnest on wedding plans. Their daughter Neve will have Mum at home every evening. Neve will walk through the school gate for the first time in June, and she can now be certain that her mother, freed of onerous prime ministerial duties, will be at her side. As will Neve’s dad too, of course.

That’s what winning looks like.

There is another kind of loser in all of this. I’m not talking about the cowardly type of loser, the anonymous peddlers of poison, but decent people who feel a deep sense of shock and sadness when there is a sudden exit of a much-loved and respected figure.

It won’t be just Ardern’s government colleagues and the Labour Party feeling this way, but also the tens of thousands of ordinary Kiwis who were inspired by her skills and leadership, and took pride in the way she conducted herself, especially when on the world stage.

Their feeling of loss will be profound.

On Wednesday, the day before Ardern’s stunning announcement, it was five years to the day since the country learned the Prime Minister was pregnant.

I remember the day well. She was newly installed in the job and the Government was still in First 100 Days mode. Her pregnancy was huge and joyous news for the country. Ardern had a bright new world ahead of her, both personally and politically.

But a little over a year later, as the PM balanced motherhood and prime ministerial responsibilities, the world didn’t seem so bright from a governmental vantage point.

The traumatic Christchurch terror attacks in March 2019 saw the PM setting aside everything else to lead the response, a task she performed admirably, and that won her acclaim and respect at home and abroad. Then later that year came the Whakaari-White Island eruption, another terrible event that consumed a lot of Ardern’s time and energy.

A matter of months later, the COVID-19 virus arrived on our shores and the country went into lockdown and grappled with huge disruption to economic and everyday life. Ardern maintained a punishing schedule throughout, and the country rewarded her for her stellar efforts by...