On Sunday, January 22nd, New Zealand Labour Party MPs unanimously elected Chris Hipkins as their new leader. As the nation’s new prime minister, Hipkins is replacing outgoing PM Jacinda Ardern, who resigned only days before.
Since the 44-year-old Hipkins, who occupies a more centrist position within the fairly leftist party, was the only candidate, the vote was essentially a formality.
Under Ardern’s leadership, Chris “Chippy” Hipkins has held the positions of minister of education, police, and public service, a post tasked with overseeing, managing, and improving the performance of New Zealand’s state sector.
During multiple media appearances on Monday, the incoming PM, who has garnered a kind of ‘Mr. Fix-It’ reputation, said the cost-of-living crisis many New Zealanders face will be his government’s priority.
Hipkins told TVNZ’s Breakfast on Monday that they would be focusing on “bread and butter issues,” for NZ citizens which, he said, includes things “like their grocery bills, their power bills, their mortgage interest rates.”
To a second morning programme, the AM Show, he said they would “be making haste on all of those issues,” assuring that “within the next few weeks you are going to see quite a lot of clarity around us about reprioritization.”
Under his predecessor’s tenure, New Zealand’s economy—and consequently, its people—have been ailing, particularly for the last couple of months. In the next quarter, the country is expected to fall into recession.
Apart from consideration for his fellow citizens, Hipkins’ pledges should also be viewed as an effort to keep Labour afloat, since recent polls have shown Labour is likely to underperform in the October 14th elections, giving rightist parties the edge.
Hipkins is best known for having been appointed by Ardern as minister for COVID-19 response; he held the uniquely created position from November 2020 to June 2022. Before this appointment, he served as minister of health from July 2020.
In mid-September 2022, the New Zealand government finally abolished its strict ‘traffic lights’ system—celebrated in some corners, vilified in others—which had been concocted to curtail the virus’ spread. As a consequence, most remaining mask, vaccine, and close contact isolation mandates and other restrictions were scrapped.
This Tuesday, January 24th, was Jacinda Ardern’s last official day as prime minister; on Wednesday, her successor will be sworn in.
