Heather du Plessis-Allan: Labour and Jacinda Ardern's slide in the polls could be halted by being kind and caring

Jacinda Ardern represented New Zealand well at the White House, reminding voters why she sparked Jacindamania. Photo / Joy Asico

OPINION:

Labour seems to be panicking over falling polls. They shouldn't panic. They should definitely be worried. But panicking is only making things worse.

Ten polls since January have put Labour behind National. As the year's gone on, the gap has widened. Labour is further and further behind. The PM's popularity is dropping too. Every month, fewer people tell the pollsters Jacinda Ardern is their preferred PM.

Labour's right to be worried. It's quite early in this term to be less popular than the Opposition. It's also quite early in the Government's life to be this unpopular. Labour is only halfway through the nine years we accept as standard nowadays.

The international trends aren't promising either. Voters around the world are tiring of pandemic leaders. Australia's Scott Morrison lost his election last month. The UK's Boris Johnson probably only has months left in his job after being booed by Platinum Jubilee crowds and losing the support of 40 per cent of his MPs.

But panicking won't help Labour.

So far, nothing they've done has stopped Labour's slide in the polls. If anything, hitting panic buttons has made them look cynical.

The panicking seemed to start with Labour's petrol tax reduction. It came only days after the PM refused to acknowledge there was a cost of living crisis. The ultimate move was welcome but it screamed of a party forced by weekend polling to do something it really didn't want to have to do.

Then came the Budget's $350 cost-of-living payment, clearly cobbled together in a rush. Again, welcome. But why exclude beneficiaries and pensioners? Workers know that if we're doing it tough, they're doing it tougher. Most likely they were excluded because polling told Labour they needed to show Middle New Zealand workers some special love. But, again, too cynical. Not elegant enough. How insincere is the PM if child poverty was the reason she joined politics and yet she's prepared to deny financial help to the families of New Zealand's poorest children?

Voters didn't love it. There was no traditional Budget poll boost. Both polls taken after the Budget showed another two-point drop for Labour.

Then last week, Labour launched attack ads on National's Christopher Luxon.

The ads are good. They hit Luxon's weakest point: the sense that he has no actual plan other than to win in 2023. The ads feature a picture of a smiling Luxon with the quote, "The cost of living crisis - that's how we'll win this election." Luxon said it at a recent National Party Central North Island conference.

But, coming this early in the term, the ads betray Labour's panic. And they're not very kind. Labour enjoys pretending to be the party of kindness that refuses to indulge in petty politics, yet it is the very party running nasty, personal attack ads.

Panicking like this risks doing long-term brand damage. Voters are losing track of what this party stands for. It's all over the show. If it isn't in government to fix child poverty, then what is it in government for? And if it isn't kind, then is it just like every other cynical party obsessed with staying in power?

Really, Labour's solution is to go back to basics. Return to the things voters loved about it back in 2017: a charming leader and a promise to improve life for Kiwis.

Seeing the PM perform in the US might've reminded voters what they used to like about her at the start of her leadership. We've got used to the patronising 1pm press conferences and glib responses like, 'I utterly reject the premise of that question.' But on the world stage that was gone.

She shone at Harvard. She was charming on Stephen Colbert's show. She represented us well at the White House.

Luckily for Labour, Ardern's just been in Australia and will soon be in Madrid for Nato and hopefully, voters will again be reminded of why she sparked Jacindamania. Labour needs to bottle the offshore Jacinda and bring it back here again.

And Labour needs to get back to actually trying to make this country better. It captured the zeitgeist back in 2017 when rising poverty worried us. Rising poverty still worries us. But so does rising crime, rising gang violence and rising living costs. More of dealing with that and less of the unnecessary and divisive reforms like Three Waters.

The next election is not yet lost for Labour, but if they keep panicking they will ensure they lose it.