Minister for Education Chris Hipkins, who is replacing Jacinda Ardern as New Zealand’s Prime Minister, announced that his government would be busy reprioritising current policies.
Following Ms Ardern’s announcement of her stepping down from her position as Prime Minister, stating that she had “no more in the tank” to lead the country, Mr Hipkins emerged from the caucus as the only candidate to lead the ruling Labour Party.
“I think we’re an incredibly strong team,” Mr Hipkins said after the party announced him as the sole candidate.
“We’ve gone through this process with unity and we’ll continue to do that. I’m feeling really fortunate to be working with such an amazing group of people who have a real commitment to the service of the people of New Zealand.”
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Mr Hipkins told TVNZ’s Breakfast on Monday that his government would be refocusing on “bread and butter issues” including inflation and would look at reining in other current policies. He also stated that he will be honouring Labour’s 2020 election promises and will be working through those issues with colleagues.
“We’ll be making haste on all of those issues,” Mr Hipkins said.
“Within the next few weeks, you’re going to see quite a lot of clarity around us about reprioritisation.”
Similar to Ms Ardern, the new Prime Minister is looking to reduce federal and local government priorities and spending to adjust to harder economic times ahead.
While a cabinet reshuffle proposed by Ms Ardern would go ahead, Mr Hipkins said he planned to keep Grant Robertson as finance minister.
Mr Hipkins said he had also spoken to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who tweeted the two had had “a warm discussion”.
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Aucklander Eva Murphy states that the new Prime Minister has a big challenge before him.
“He won’t ever fill the shoes that Jacinda has and it will be interesting to see what Labour come out with in terms of the election campaign over the next year, and we’re looking forward to seeing what happens,” she said.
Challenges that could complicate the new Prime Minister’s term have also been arising in the last few years, with Labour trailing behind the opposition in opinion polls and the country expected to fall into recession in the next quarter before the general election.
But the new Prime Minister says he was looking on the bright side.
“I’m really optimistic, I’ve had a huge amount of support. And I think New Zealand is giving me a fair hearing,” he said.
Source: Reuters. Content has been edited for style and length.