New Zealand Veers Sharply Right, Leaving Jacinda Ardern’s Era Behind

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Posted on 11/19/2024 5:40:46 AM PST by Cronos

A year before American voters’ anger over the cost of living helped Donald J. Trump win the presidency, similar sentiments in New Zealand thrust in the nation’s most conservative government in decades.

Now, New Zealand bears little resemblance to the country recently led by Jacinda Ardern, whose brand of compassionate, progressive politics made her a global symbol of anti-Trump liberalism.

The new government — a coalition of the main center-right party and two smaller, more populist ones — has reversed many of Ms. Ardern’s policies. It has rescinded a world-leading ban on smoking for future generations, repealed rules designed to address climate change and put a former arms-industry lobbyist in charge of overhauling the nation’s strict gun laws.

...This rightward shift is, in a way, reflective of Ms. Ardern’s complicated legacy at home. Her coronavirus policies were lauded initially but ended up being divisive. The pandemic also left the country with a bruising cost of living. When Ms. Ardern stepped down as prime minister in January 2023, before her second term ended, inflation was hovering at 7 percent.

..The government is promoting a bill that would allow some infrastructure projects — like mines, roads and housing developments — to bypass the usually required environmental assessments.

It has vowed to repeal some Ardern-era measures — like a plan to tax farm animals’ methane emissions and a ban on offshore oil and gas exploration — with the argument that they hurt businesses’ bottom line. And it has expanded mining operations, which it argued could become “an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...

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1 posted on 11/19/2024 5:40:46 AM PST by Cronos

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