The Star: October 08, 2020

The Star Thursday October 8 2020
22
OPINION
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Ardern clear-cut debate winner
New Zealand Herald political and senior writers give their verdicts on the leaders’ debate in
Christchurch on Tuesday night
Audrey Young
Winner: Jacinda Ardern
Ardern barely put a foot wrong
before a lively town hall audience.
She clearly thrived from the
frequent applause of the crowd.
She was measured.
It was an accomplished performance
in most areas except
housing.
The facts are overwhelmingly
against her on that one but
otherwise she won hands down.
The debate is likely to create momentum
for her, if that were even
needed.
Judith Collins started off badly.
She seemed even a little nervous.
Her bad day with ill-disciplined
MPs was about to get worse. The
large town hall venue and fairly
hostile audience did not suit her.
She struck the wrong tone. She
was hectoring, negative and
shouty.
There is a fine line between
being strong and aggressive. She
judged it wrong this time. Her
messages were subsumed by the
style.
The format of the debate leaves
more room for interaction between
the two leaders than other
debates but their sparring added
nothing to the event.
Simon Wilson
Winner: Jacinda Ardern
An easy win for Ardern. She
came out confident and coherent:
Government is complex, we’re
making progress, we want to
build back better, in tourism and
elsewhere. And she hurt Collins
on the $8 billion hole in her
budget plan.
Ardern wasn’t always convincing:
slow progress is hard to
defend. But she did open up a
fundamental difference: for Collins,
the economic crisis means
climate change and everything
else takes a back seat; for Ardern,
the rebuild must address threats
like climate change or “we’ll be
left behind”.
Collins came out smug and
shouty but who wants to hear
that? Hey! she shouted. Haha, she
shouted, and threw her head back
and laughed and clapped. After
half an hour she dialled it back,
but Ardern was forceful without
shouting and Collins didn’t know
how to deal with it.
They had a great moment
together, both acknowledging how
hard it is to address child abuse.
And a bad moment together too:
Bickering over housing, neither of
them with a record to be proud of.
In the end, Collins had her
jobs mantra but it was narrowly
focused. Ardern pitched her party
as the safe pair of hands with its
eye on that better future. Serious
and hopeful. It seemed right.
Fran O’Sullivan
Winner: Jacinda Ardern
Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins
brought their A games to the
debate.
They were fierce, considered,
petulant, inspirational and even
unifying when it came to punting
for a four-year parliamentary
term.
In this third leaders’ debate
there was more differentiation on
policy.
But a quick defining moment
came when Ardern was asked
what she would have done differently
with Covid-19 if she knew
back in March what she knows
now. “Possibly gone earlier”.
Collins went hard and early
reminding Ardern, National
was more serious about the risks
before her. This is true – if lost in
the sands of time. But it was Simon
Bridges who made that run.
Ardern pounced: “Every leader of
the National Party has had a different
position on this.” Differing
approaches to the economy, fiscal
policy and climate change.
A generational moment came
when each was asked to define
what “woke” meant to them.
Collins “lot of nonsense”. Ardern:
“extreme self-awareness”.
Collins was still scrapping when
it came time to wrap. Ardern
was prepared, polished, prime
ministerial.
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