The Salvation Army says child poverty remains unchanged, despite the government’s claims that rates are decreasing. Here again, the wellbeing of Maori and Pasifika kids is even worse, with estimates that they are 10 per cent more likely to live in poverty than other children.

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In 2019, the NZ government committed NZ$1.9 billion to addressing mental health. Mental health continues to decline (and yes, it’s worse for Maori and Pasifika). The number of acute mental health facility beds is the same as in 2017, when Ardern came to power.

Robertson, the architect of NZ’s wellbeing budget, was widely seen as Ardern’s successor. The fact that he has chosen not to contest for the position of Labour Party leader ahead of the 2023 election shows that he’s very aware that NZ voters have found the delivery of the wellbeing budget wanting. Turns out that, in politics at least, it’s not the thought that counts.

Albanese will also confront comparisons between the Indigenous Voice and the interpretation of the Treaty of Waitangi – the historic and enviably successful treaty between the Maori and British settlers – under Ardern’s government. After years of successful co-governance, the Labour Party stands accused by conservative parties of creating a system in which Maori have more rights than other New Zealanders. Separately, the NZ Greens are concerned that co-governance arrangements lead to a defacto privatisation of assets they believe should be in public hands. The complexity of the debate across the ditch may add a layer of complexity to a Yes campaign, which is based on a strategy of radical simplicity.

All in all, Ardern has done a disservice to the credibility of “kindness”. She has mastered the semiotics of empathy, but her kindness is careless of real-world outcomes. Ardern’s empathy has proven as unhelpful as that of the humanitarian tourists whose good intentions end up doing the countries they inflict them on actual harm.

If this is what a modern liberal icon looks like, Albanese had better hope he’s never accused of being one. But as the NZ election revs up, the comparisons will become irresistible. If little New Zealand has been the test market for Albanese’s plans, it’s time to take them back into research.

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