Editorial: Labour hopes voters want to keep the 'team' intact

Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford leaving the Auckland Town Hall at the Labour Party launch. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

A second act is always a difficult balancing trick.

Do you try to inspire and promise future changes or rely on existing goodwill and your track record?

If you are the favoured frontrunner, is it best not to spook the horses and just get over the line?

When a first term government seeks another one there's always a message that's some variant on "stay the course," and "move forward with us".

Too much emphasis on change could come across as an admission of frustration with the amount of progress achieved. But the party runs the risk of creating a sense of inertia and over-cautiousness.

At the Labour Party re-election campaign launch on Saturday the themes were predictably "our job is not done" and "there is more to do".

It's both a gentle nudge for voters to not put it all at risk and a promise of more of the same. Perhaps the real slogan is "keep calm and carry on".

"It's about the future. It's about leadership and it's about values," Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. "It's about whether we stop and change to another team, or whether we keep those we know and we trust."

Labour appears to want to be as solid and safe as possible, while occupying that sweet spot of being the dominant centrist party, the natural occupiers of government.

As with the Budget earlier this year, the policy approach is sensible, practical and predictable.

A $300 million-plus package includes work subsidy and business start-up schemes which would offer pragmatic help to thousands of unemployed people.

The continued emphasis on ensuring support to people who need it in a difficult time is welcome and admirable.

But new ideas, innovation and recognition of the importance of technology are also going to be important in plotting the country's way forward. The new Government is going to have to create new jobs and somehow safely re-open the border. There are a lot of unknowns.

Is Labour a bit gun shy after the problems with affordable housing and light rail - both of which Ardern mentioned in her speech? Or are the leadership just trying to be a small target - to do no harm in the quest for victory?

In Ardern, the party has a popular leader a large section of the public is happy to have in charge. To underline those credentials, the country yesterday reached a milestone 100 days without any cases of coronavirus community transmission.

As was the case with former Prime Minister John Key, many voters have a confidence and comfortableness with the person at the top. It is the glue between the wider public and the senior party in government.

Our proportional election system seems to favour mild, consensus-building, good managers as leaders - who appeal beyond their party tribe - rather than figures with noticeable vision.

Ardern has more natural charisma than most - as evidenced by her growing number of international fans impressed by her handling of the Covid-19 outbreak.

And Labour may yet develop a more confident style should it get over that hurdle of being returned to power - especially if it can govern alone. Re-election would put the recent horrors of years of Opposition and leadership changes to bed.

The Labour-led Government has spent the first three years trying to prove its competence generally - and succeeding against the virus. Perhaps a re-election win would allow Labour room to be more adventurous.