Claire Trevett: A snap election? The PM stepping down? Not happening

As we say goodbye to 2022 and welcome in 2023, it’s a good time to catch up on the very best of the Herald columnists we enjoyed reading over the last 12 months. From politics to sport, from business to entertainment and lifestyle, these are the voices and views our audience loved the most. Today it’s the top five from Claire Trevett.

A snap election? Ardern stepping down? Not happening - October 22

“I have said it thrice, what I tell you three times is true!” says the Bellman in Lewis Carroll’s Hunting of the Snark as he tries to wish up a snark to hunt.

NZ First leader Winston Peters and other rivals to Labour seem to have adopted the same motto when it comes to confident predictions of those equally mythical creatures: a snap election and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern bowing out before the election.

If they say it enough, or the rumour spreads far enough, they seem to think it will happen.

Peters confidently predicted a snap election at his party conference last week.

Journalists – and the PM – are also frequently being asked about rumours she will step down before that election.

Within a week of Peters’ prediction, a snap byelection was called – in Hamilton West. But here’s why there won’t be a snap election – and also why the PM won’t step down before the election.

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A blindsided Luxon chucks Uffindell to the wolves - August 9

National’s Christopher Luxon has effectively thrown his new MP Sam Uffindell to the wolves - and it may well end up saving him.

After the news broke that Uffindell was kicked out of Kings College for beating up a third former when he was 16, Luxon told him to get out and front on it.

Uffindell was told to do every media interview he was asked to. The clear message: clean up your own mess.

He did them all and he did them alone; radio, television, websites, newspapers, saying over and over he was a teenage “thug” but was a changed man as an adult.

Then he was sent out to front a press conference on Tuesday morning where he took questions for a full 20 minutes until there were no more.

It is a move straight out of the Shane Jones’ Playbook for Penitents.

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After the Labour conference, the sucker punch lands in a poll - November 6

The Labour Party conference – as with most party conferences – was a bit like a brief visit to Lego world in the Lego Movie.

Conferences are designed to make the delegates and grass roots volunteers – and the politicians - think everything is absolutely awesome despite evidence to the contrary.

Not all delegates actually believe it, of course, but everybody plays along.

That includes the realistic Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson, who declared at one point “whenever I’m in this place, I know the future is bright, and bold and beautiful”.

The contrary evidence landed with a thump just a few hours after the delegates stood for a rapturous ovation for Labour leader Jacinda Ardern’s speech.

It was in the form of Newshub Reid Research poll, putting Labour down in support once again.

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Fire and fury: Inside Camp Covid’s final 48 hours - March 4

For the first five hours, there was a weird disjunct at the protest referred to as “Camp Covid”.

Around the perimeters, police were moving in, pepper spray and smoke bombs were being used, there were arrests and loudhailers used by both sides, one urging “hold the line” and the other calling on protesters to leave and to back away from the police line.

But in front of Parliament itself, on the main lawn, songs of peace were being played – Amazing Grace, Alleluia, a bit of Bob Marley. The yoga crew stood and did their stretches.

When things got really heated on the outskirts, the music within changed to meditation music and a man spoke over it, using a slow, calm voice.

There was the thin line of police, a few protesters yelling their now routine abuse at both police and media, telling them to sack themselves, that they were useless.

But there was no real indication those people directly in front of Parliament thought the police would be coming for them next.

But they did.

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A shift to the Covid-19 Red setting? Not on the PM’s nelly - July 6

Nobody likes the bearer of bad news and so there were gritted teeth when New Zealand’s Covid-19 experts started warning of a second wave – and predicting conditions would be right for a return to the red setting in the near future.

The Government in particular does not like the bearers of bad news, especially on the eve of school holidays.

As cases nudged up to the 10,000 mark again, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was duly asked whether the Government was considering a move to red, and answered in the negative: not soon, if ever.

Ardern then questioned whether the very rules she put in place to provide the extra protection at red were effective anyway - saying it was questionable whether the gathering limits would make much difference to the spread of cases.

That means there are now also question marks about why the red level still exists at all, given those indoor gathering limits and seated-and-separated rules in hospitality venues are the primary difference between red and orange.

It might be a bit baffling to some that the mantra seems to be ABR: Anything but Red.

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