It was a busy March for the Rt. Hon. Dame Jacinda Ardern. On March 17, Ardern announced she will begin a nine-night UK and US book tour (in June 2025) entitled, Jacinda Ardern, A Different Kind of Power – What if kindness came first? Then, on March 25, the University of Oxford announced that Ardern would join the Blavatnik School of Government as a Distinguished Fellow and member of the World Leaders Circle.

In the press release, Ardern stated, ‘I’m delighted to join the bipartisan network of leaders … it will give me a chance to work alongside a new generation of leaders … interested in enhancing governance through empathetic leadership.’

Both announcements employed the ‘kind and empathic’ messaging now synonymous with Ardern’s brand, having become embedded through years of repetition.

For example, in 2018 NZ media group Stuff reported that Ardern had said ‘committing to kindness shows strength, not weakness’. In 2020, the Guardian wrote, ‘Could Jacinda Ardern’s politics of kindness work in other countries?’ And upon resigning in 2023, Time reported, ‘How Jacinda Ardern Led New Zealand With Her Humanity.’ Today, if you ask Meta AI or ChatGPT ‘what one word best describes Jacinda Ardern’s leadership style’ they both respond ‘empathetic’.

Kindness and empathy are now firmly cemented as Ardern’s international brand. They are not, however, her New Zealand brand – despite still being pushed by New Zealand’s media, academics, and those inside Wellington’s capital bubble. No – ordinary Kiwis have a different take.

At the time of her resignation in January 2023, Ardern’s leadership was viewed as toxic. Her party was in free fall in the polls, having plunged from 60 per cent in October 2020 to just 27 per cent by late 2022. Even Stuff, an unabashed cheerleader of the Ardern government, recently (April 2025) admitted that job losses, skyrocketing inflation, and interest rates, increases in the cost of living, a host of unpopular policies, her leadership style, and Covid mandates that ‘fractured social cohesion’ had driven a collapse in Ardern’s popularity.

Interestingly, this was not the first time Ardern had struggled in the polls. In late 2019, just two years after becoming Prime Minister, Ardern’s party was polling 7 per cent lower than their main rival, the National Party. Enter Covid: Ardern’s saving grace. By mid-2020, Labour was soaring in the polls and went on to win the October 2020 general election – an electoral phenomenon replicated worldwide as people, subjected to intense Covid fearmongering, rewarded political incumbents.

In hindsight, however, Covid would play a significant role in Ardern’s downfall, more specifically, her response to it. Over the proceeding years, Kiwis would come to learn that there was nothing kind or empathetic about Ardern’s leadership and policies.

Kiwis saw firsthand how Graeme Hattie was treated, for example. Mr Hattie flew to New Zealand in July 2020 to visit his dying father. Hattie’s application for release from New Zealand’s mandatory 14-day quarantine on compassionate grounds was rejected twice. Mr Hattie’s father died while Hattie himself remained stuck inside a guarded quarantine hotel.

Then there were the hundreds of thousands of Kiwi citizens denied the right to return to New Zealand between April 2020 and February 2022 because of the country’s closed border policy and a quarantine lottery system deemed inhumane. These Kiwis missed important life events (e.g., births, marriages, jobs), and many, like Mr Hattie, were stopped from comforting and farewelling dying loved ones.

Thousands of Kiwis were subjected to mandatory vaccination to access work, education, and travel, despite explicit assurances by Ardern to the contrary. Frontline border and quarantine workers were first to be mandated (late 2021), followed by the health and disability, and education sectors. Those who refused were threatened with losing their job – many did. ‘It will become very clear to people that if you are not vaccinated there will be things that you miss out on, everyday things that you will miss out on,’ Ardern said. She continued, ‘It’s about both rewarding people who have gone out and done the right thing but also keeping away people who are less safe.’

In early February 2022, Kiwis watched on as anti-mandate and anti-lockdown protestors occupied the lawns outside Parliament. Ardern refused to meet with the protestors, even going as far as saying it was irresponsible for any MP to meet with them. Over the next few weeks, as their numbers swelled, the protestors were deliberately soaked by lawn sprinklers and subjected to loud music throughout the night. Despite a large indigenous Māori presence, the protestors were continually tarred as white supremacist, far-right, and Trumpist anti-vaxxers by New Zealand’s media. Then they were forcibly removed by heavily armed riot police wielding batons and pepper spray and using sound cannons and rubber bullets.

By early to mid-2022, Kiwis were becoming increasingly weary of Ardern’s leadership style and her party’s myopic focus on Covid, despite much of the rest of the world having moved on. New Zealand’s deepening societal and economic problems, driven by Ardern’s unpopular policies, were also becoming too serious for people to ignore – even if Ardern and her Labour Party wished they would. The result was a collapse in support for Ardern and her party, and Ardern’s resignation in early 2023.

To Kiwis, Ardern’s legacy is not one of kindness and empathy. On top of the heartlessness of the Covid years, it is one of a significant increase in national debt (47 per cent of GDP according to IMF figures, up from the low 30s in 2018), recessions, and economic malaise – all driven by borrowing to shore up the economy during Covid and government largesse. New Zealand’s economic performance is now ranked 33rd out of 37 OECD countries, falling behind other members. It is a legacy of rising joblessness, increased racial, and social discord, and increased gun crime and gang violence. Mental health issues amongst young adults are skyrocketing while record declines in educational metrics will harm a generation of young New Zealanders’ life outcomes.

And despite claims to the contrary, including from Ardern, it appears to be one of increasing child poverty. ‘One in seven children are estimated to be living in households where they experience material poverty … that is the highest number since 2015,’ wrote Craig Renney, Economist and Director of Policy at the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions in February 2025.

The damage to a once high-trust society has been substantial. A recent (2025) Acumen study on trust and grievance reports that 67 per cent of Kiwis now express a moderate to high sense of grievance – well above the global average – defined as ‘a belief that government and business harm them and serve narrow interests…’ The report continues, ‘…there is also intense scepticism of government officials, business leaders and journalists with on average 61 per cent reporting they worry about the leaders purposefully trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false.’

Only 19 per cent of Kiwis now believe the next generation will be better off than them.

Given that so many of New Zealand’s socio-economic metrics have worsened, and that their life expectancy and socio-outcomes are strongly linked to New Zealand’s economic performance, Kiwis may be forgiven for wondering exactly what ‘kind and empathic leadership’ has gotten them. It may explain why New Zealand citizens are emigrating in record numbers.

I do not doubt that Ardern will continue to be revered internationally. Her brand will go from strength to strength, driven by careful messaging and polished performances. But for Kiwis, there is nothing in the actual outcomes of her leadership or policies to substantiate her international image. For them, the saying ‘style over substance’ could not be truer.