Latest news with #ADifferentKindofPower
The Spinoff
19 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Spinoff
The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending June 20
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books' stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington. AUCKLAND 1 A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin Random House, $60) Spot New Zealand's former prime minster on this week's New York Times bestseller list. 2 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) The un-put-downable alternate history that explores some of life's biggest questions, including what does it mean to have a soul? Can a human ever not have one? 3 Eurotrash by Christian Kracht (Serpents Tail, $30) Auckland really loves this hectic mother-son roadtrip novel. 4 James by Percival Everett (Picador, $38) Everett's biggest book yet is his stunning, funny and profound retelling of Huckleberry Finn. 5 Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum (Bloomsbury, $25) Cosy and charming and perfect for a long Matariki weekend. 6 The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Penguin, $26) This year's winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction. One of the most exquisite novels you'll read this year: it is moving, sexy and surprising. 7 Butter by Asako Yuzuki (4th Estate, $35) The smash hit novel based on a true crime story of a serial killer who lured her victims in with stunning food. 8 A Dim Prognosis by Ivor Popovich (Allen & Unwin, $38) An utterly gripping, energetic memoir from Dr Popovich. Revealing! See The Spinoff this weekend to read an excerpt from this brilliant book. 9 Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Random House, $38) Vuong's second novel. 10 King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby (Hachette, $38) A fiery crime novel. Here's the blurb: 'Roman Carruthers left the smoke and fire of his family's crematory business behind in his hometown of Jefferson Run, Virginia. He is enjoying a life of shallow excess as a financial adviser in Atlanta until he gets a call from his sister, Neveah, telling him their father is in a coma after a hit-and-run accident. When Roman goes home, he learns the accident may not be what it seems. His brother, Dante, is deeply in debt to dangerous, ruthless criminals. And Roman is willing to do anything to protect his family. Anything. A financial whiz with a head for numbers and a talent for making his clients rich, Roman must use all his skills to try to save his family while dealing with a shadow that has haunted them all for twenty years: the disappearance of their mother when Roman and his siblings were teenagers. It's a mystery that Neveah, who has sacrificed so much of her life to hold her family together, is determined to solve once and for all. As fate and chance and heartache ignite their lives, the Carruthers family must pull together to survive or see their lives turn to ash. Because, as their father counselled them from birth, nothing lasts forever. Everything burns.' WELLINGTON 1 A Different Kind of Power by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin Random House, $60) 2 Towards Modernism: Walter Cook Collection at Te Papa by Justine Olsen (Te Papa Press, $75) This handsome new publication celebrates the Walter Cook Collection of Decorative Arts (held at Te Papa) and the ceramic, glass and metal objects therein. 3 The Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgey (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) 4 It's A Bit More Complicated Than That by Hannah Marshall (Allen and Unwin NZ, $25) A brilliant new YA novel from a huge new talent. Here's the blurb: 'Zelle and Callum used to be best friends, but they haven't spoken in three years: not since the tragedy that wrenched them apart, and Zelle moved away. But now Zelle is back, and their lives are about to get a whole lot more complicated. Zelle is in denial about her alcohol use that threatens to spiral out of control, and she's deeply annoyed at having to leave the city. Callum's future is thrown into jeopardy after both a disastrous uni interview and his budding romance turning sour. But they can't keep running from the past forever, and circumstances force them to examine their grief and guilt and find a way through.' 5 A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan (Allen and Unwin NZ, $37) 'Trevelyan's narrator is 10 years old. She's unnamed until the very end of the book (I won't reveal it here: best to find out for yourself). It's this naive perspective that makes A Beautiful Family both easy to read and impossible to put down. The narrator's innocence is pitted against several disturbing factors, all orbiting her summer in various shapes and shades, and it's that persistent dance of disturbances that creates the sustained and unrelenting tension in the novel.' Read more of Claire Mabey's review on The Spinoff, right here. 6 The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden (Penguin, $26) 7 Delirious by Damien Wilkins (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) 'I don't want to say that Delirious is the pinnacle of what Damien can do because that would be like putting a curse on his future work. But I am going to say it's almost impossible for me to imagine how he could do better. I think this is a great book – Great with capital G.' Even before Delirious won this year's Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, Elizabeth Knox was rapturous about Wilkins' beautiful novel. 8 Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq (Scribe, $37) Shortlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize. 'In the twelve stories of Heart Lamp, Banu Mushtaq exquisitely captures the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. Published originally in the Kannada language between 1990 and 2023, praised for their dry and gentle humour, these portraits of family and community tensions testify to Mushtaq's years as a journalist and lawyer, in which she tirelessly championed women's rights and protested all forms of caste and religious oppression. Written in a style at once witty, vivid, colloquial, moving and excoriating, it's in her characters – the sparky children, the audacious grandmothers, the buffoonish maulvis and thug brothers, the oft-hapless husbands, and the mothers above all, surviving their feelings at great cost – that Mushtaq emerges as an astonishing writer and observer of human nature, building disconcerting emotional heights out of a rich spoken style. Her opus has garnered both censure from conservative quarters as well as India's most prestigious literary awards; this is a collection sure to be read for years to come.' 9 James by Percival Everett (Picador, $38) 10 The Māori Millionaire by Te Kahukura Boynton (Penguin, $35) 'Te Kahukura Boynton is Māori Millionaire, and her debut book is here to help. Learn how to make money by clearing debt, saving for an emergency, finding work and increasing your salary, and even starting your own business and investing in shares and yourself. With tips on building better habits with your money and your life, Māori Millionaire is the positive mindset change you might be missing.' So goes the blurb.
Sky News AU
3 days ago
- Politics
- Sky News AU
No amount of book sales can dispel Jacinda Ardern's 'odd passivity' that defines her fear-driven time at the top
Jacinda Ardern is back in the headlines, promoting her new memoir 'A Different Kind of Power' - a reflective account of leadership in turbulent times. But the warm glow of international admiration and her trademark poise can't obscure the enduring truth: her government, despite commanding a once-in-a-generation majority, will be remembered less for bold reform than for missed opportunities, and a puzzling reluctance to wield real power. Ms Ardern's personal brand was global and managerial: she was popular for her empathy and calm in crisis, not for bold leftist policy. In fact, many on the left viewed Labour's second term as a wasted mandate. Ms Ardern's second-term Labour government had enormous political capital - but a mix of centrist instincts, bureaucratic drag, Covid-era caution, and fear of losing swing voters led to a remarkably status quo style of governance. There was no structural tax reform, no wealth redistribution of scale, no transformative housing policy and little movement on climate beyond setting targets. Instead, Labour's second term was defined by incremental, technocratic reforms and a constant fear of middle-class backlash. The once-in-a-generation opportunity for sweeping reform was there - but not taken. In fact, it is hard to think of any modern Western government that made so little of its mandate - that is the enduring, even puzzling legacy of Jacinda Ardern. Ms Ardern won a second term with an outright majority. No longer hamstrung by coalition partners, her Labour government was free to enact any legislation it envisaged. Before her first victory in 2017, the left had languished in the wilderness for nine years, and now, after twelve years, and a legislative agenda stymied by the centrist New Zealand First, there was a once in a generation opportunity to enact an egalitarian vision of New Zealand society. But even before then, there were tensions, a sense of misfiring political machinery, something unaccountably underwhelming about Ms Ardern and her government. Unlike Australia, where, post Howard, governments frequently come and go, New Zealand governments tend to endure. Kiwis are so lackadaisical about politics that a government basically gets its first term as a kind of freebie - the last time New Zealand had a one-term government was 1975. And yet, the prevailing wisdom - largely forgotten or memory-holed now, is that were it not for Covid, Ms Ardern was, at best, a 50-50 proposition to win re-election in 2020. Why did her ambitious housing agenda of setting out to build 100,000 new homes fail so badly in the first term, and why didn't she attempt to renew the policy drive with an outright majority in the second? Why didn't she substantively alter tax and tackle wealth distribution when she controlled fiscal policy or do anything substantive or defining when a historic opportunity for sweeping change was at hand?Despite having the mandate, Ms Ardern was ideologically centrist in practice. Her style of leadership emphasised consensus, kindness, and incrementalism, not confrontation or radical reform. While rhetorically progressive, in execution her government often governed with caution. The issue here was that she was talking in progressive terms and with a progressive spirit, without actually dealing anything substantive, or any signature legislative achievements that would enthral progressives. Housing was the area where expectations were highest - and results most disappointing. Kiwibuild promised 100,000 homes but failed almost from the start, derailed by unrealistic targets, developer resistance, and planning bottlenecks. Labour could have used its majority to overhaul zoning, expand state housing, or confront inflated land values - but was spooked by the political risks of reducing house prices, which would hurt middle-class voters and existing homeowners and opted instead for modest bipartisan tweaks, leaving the Reserve Bank's stimulus to do the heavy lifting. House prices soared, inequality deepened, and the government stood still. Labour also had to contend with bureaucratic and implementation limits. New Zealand's state capacity is small. Even when the political will was there, implementation proved sluggish. The public service is highly risk-averse, and major reforms take years of consultation, design, and rollout. Labour's ministers often lacked deep experience or vision in their portfolios – Ms Ardern had a strong front-facing brand, but policy delivery was patchy. Why not soak the rich? Ms Ardern ruled out capital gains and wealth taxes early, even before the second term, and reaffirmed that stance despite Labour's majority. A Tax Working Group (2019) recommended a CGT, but Ms Ardern shut it down, saying she didn't believe in it and would never propose one "as long as I'm leader". Labour introduced a modest new top tax bracket, but that was about it. This stemmed from a fear of political backlash from swing voters, and an apparent lack of internal party consensus. The Labour caucus itself was ideologically diverse, with a significant bloc of MPs wary of alienating middle-class homeowners, farmers, or the business sector. The pandemic radically changed the fiscal landscape. The Covid recovery required tens of billions in emergency spending - business support, wage subsidies and health infrastructure. While Ms Ardern had public backing to spend during the emergency, longer-term structural reforms (like universal free dental, income support overhaul, or big housing expansion) were seen as fiscally risky once debt rose. Finance Minister Grant Robertson was fiscally conservative - he emphasised 'responsible' budgeting, even as bond markets remained accommodating. Again: Labour feared that sustained higher spending would spook centrist voters The outcome? A strange sense of hollowness and lack of propulsion of Ms Ardern's government. Compare this to politics across the Tasman - to the extent such a comparison can be made. Whether a supporter or critic of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, most would accept he has been productive and assertive legislatively. Ms Ardern won an outright majority for her second term under MMP - a historic anomaly - and could legislate without coalition partners for the first time under MMP. Mr Albanese won a first term with a modest majority in the House, but not in the Senate. But while Ardern had more raw legislative power, Mr Albanese arguably had a more structurally progressive parliament because of Greens and Teals Ardern sought to lead with moral clarity and an empathetic tone, but governed incrementally. In fact, she often governed as if she still needed former coalition partners NZ First or the Greens to pass laws - even when she didn't. Mr Albanese has done more with less, moving the needle on long-standing progressive goals, while Ms Ardern largely avoided using her majority to push structural reform. In terms of housing policy, Kiwibuild was a high-profile failure for Ms Ardern. She refused to tackle house prices directly, largely leaving the state out of direct housebuilding at sufficient scale. Mr Albanese introduced the Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) in an attempt to fund social and affordable housing. He faced Senate pressure but ultimately compromised toward progressive ends. Ms Ardern had no such constraint - but chose the path of least resistance. On climate and energy, Ms Ardern passed a Zero Carbon Act (with National's support) and created a Climate Commission, but follow-through was slow, and emissions reductions largely failed to materialise in agriculture or transport. Mr Albanese enshrined an emissions reduction target into law and expanded renewables investment and grid modernisation. Ms Ardern won praise for symbolism, while Mr Albanese delivered more substantive policy shifts, especially given Australia's political environment on climate has traditionally been more wary than New Zealand's. As a demonstration of contrast, and bearing variances in politics in mind, the current Australian government, the closest proxy in terms of politics and society, and separated by only a year or two in terms of tenure, reinforces the odd passivity and diffidence that ultimately defined Ms Ardern's time at the top. No amount of book sales, or easing tensions with the passage of time, or retrospective fondness will ever really dispel that. Nicholas Sheppard is an accomplished journalist whose work has been featured in The Spectator, The NZ Herald and Politico. He is also a published literary author and public relations consultant
Channel 4
4 days ago
- Politics
- Channel 4
Jacinda Arden on Trump, how to lead and Covid
Her term as Prime Minister was marked by the Christchurch terrorist attack and the pandemic. New Zealand's former premier Jacinda Ardern was best known for keeping her country impressively Covid-free although many turned against her in the cost of living crisis which followed. Her style of politics was based on empathy rather than confrontation. She's just published her memoir, A Different Kind of Power, and we sat down with her for the Ways to Change the World podcast. We spoke about what she made of the rise of governments across today's world – very different from the one she led.
NZ Herald
13-06-2025
- Politics
- NZ Herald
What if Jacinda Ardern were just an ordinary Prime Minister?
Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has just published her memoir, A Different Kind of Power. Photo / Jane Ussher THE FACTS What is it about Jacinda Ardern that turns some people completely mad? The publication of her memoir, A Different Kind of Power, this week was met with a predictable mixture of acclaim and derision. This week, in a piece by Rachel Morris explaining why New Zealand 'turn[ed] on
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jacinda Ardern Documentary ‘Prime Minister' Shows Us How the New Zealand Leader Is the Anti-Trump
On June 10 at a packed auditorium in Marina Del Rey, California, the former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern (2017-2023) comforted a room full of anxious Americans by showing them what empathetic leadership looks like. She was answering questions from Rachel Bloom at Live Talks Los Angeles about her new memoir 'A Different Kind of Power.' She is also the subject of the Sundance World Cinema audience-award-winning documentary 'Prime Minister' (CNN/HBO), which Magnolia opens in theaters June 13. 'Over the course of my time in office,' Ardern told the rapt audience, 'we had a domestic terror attack that took the lives of 51 members of our Muslim community. We had a pandemic, we had a volcanic eruption, we had a series of natural disasters. I saw and experienced a lot of difficult moments, and in all of them, I can give you examples of incredible kindness and humanity and generosity. I still fundamentally believe [that is] our natural inclination. We currently have a disconnect where that is not what is on display by political leadership. Because instead, politics has decided that blame and the weaponization of fear is a better response to the difficult period we're in, than the much more challenging response in politics, which is to actually solve the problems that people are facing.' More from IndieWire 'In Your Dreams' Teaser: The Search for the Sandman Powers Netflix's New Animated Sibling Fantasy Gold List TV Honors 'Squid Game,' 'Deli Boys,' 'The Studio,' and More Ardern's story is remarkable. She reluctantly ran for Prime Minister in 2017 after the Labour candidate dipped in the polls, and her party eventually, after intense negotiations with smaller parties, squeaked to a win. Three days before the results were announced, Ardern found out that she was pregnant. She took office in October 2017 at age 37, the youngest in New Zealand's history, the youngest country leader at that time in the world, and the third woman to serve as New Zealand Prime Minister. In due time, she gave birth to a daughter, only the second elected world leader to do so (after Pakistan's Benazir Bhutto). From the start, Ardern made it clear that her partner, Clark Gayford, would be the primary caregiver for their child. A former TV anchorman, Gayford was not only used to being in the spotlight but knew how to wield a video camera. He filmed their life behind the scenes from 2017 through her decision to step down five years later, after her popularity waned. 'The only thing that I ever found overrode self-doubt was my grinding sense of responsibility,' said Ardern. 'I knew that I had to answer the call. And so from then on, I just had to get on with it. So that was what did it.' That intimate footage was key to assembling 'Prime Minister,' which could have become a local production. But when producer Gigi Pritzker came on board, she brought in ace editor Lindsay Utz (Oscar-winner 'American Factory,' 'Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry,' 'Martha') to make a film with global appeal that was bigger than a New Zealand political story. Making her feature debut, Utz co-directed with New Zealand's Michelle Walsh. The film was seven years in the making. 'Everybody that was working on it in New Zealand recognized that it was a powerful moment in time and it should be documented,' Utz told me. 'But there was never any plan until Jacinda resigned and came to the States.' When the New Zealand team came to America to finance the movie, American financier Pritzker showed Utz some video. 'I only had to look at about two minutes to know that I wanted to take on the project,' said Utz. 'At the time, I looked at the breastfeeding footage. I had just had my second baby, and I was struggling with similar issues, common issues that women struggle with. And so this film became two countries and two teams coming together.' The Rt. Honorable Dame Ardern now serves as a fellow at Harvard University. When Utz got started, Ardern had moved to the East Coast, so the director was able to meet and bond with her in Boston. She and Walsh interviewed Ardern together and also got access to New Zealand's oral history project and 40 hours of audio diaries that had been recorded when Ardern was in office. 'That's a gift right from the documentary heavens,' said Utz, whose editorial background was an asset as the film melded together archive and fresh interviews. The first rough cut assemblage ran 17 hours. The editing team took a year to wrestle the movie down to one hour and 42 minutes. The directors wanted Ardern's voice 'to be at the center of the film,' said Utz, 'almost as if you're sitting next to her and she's telling you a story. The approach was using the audio diaries as a portal into the past and then doing these incredibly intimate interviews with her. And we were lucky, because she was writing her memoir at the time, so she was in this contemplative space. And you can see that in the interviews, they're pretty raw. She's pretty raw. She's still processing what she's just been through. We wanted it to feel like reflection, and intimate, but we were always aware that we wanted the past to be propulsive and move forward in a verité way. So we had to balance the past and the present.' Front and center was Ardern's model of a different kind of governing. 'She showed up unapologetically as herself,' said Utz. 'And that's what people take note of. They feel the authenticity, and they feel the conviction. And she demonstrates that you can be both empathetic and strong, that you can be kind and have resolve. It was important to us to show the portrait of the leader that we saw.' Remarkably, Ardern gave the filmmakers leeway. 'She did not have control,' said Utz. 'She was a good subject. You can imagine it's hard for Clark, because he shot a lot of this footage, to let go. We were given space to work and figure out how to craft this movie, and she didn't see it cut until after we submitted to Sundance.' The filmmakers screened 'Prime Minister' for Ardern in New York. 'Michelle and I were sitting in the room squeezing each other, sitting a few aisles behind her,' said Utz. 'She's watching it for the first time, and that's always a nerve-wracking experience. A lot of it is hard for her to watch, but because she is such a lover of history and documentation, she understood that even the stuff that she is embarrassed by is all part of the story. And she gave us great freedom to do what we thought was right.' As you watch the documentary, it's striking how different New Zealand is from the United States, where it's hard to imagine many of the accomplishments of Ardern's administration even being possible, from shutting down the entire country during COVID, saving 20,000 people's lives, to ordering her citizens to turn in their arms. After the Christchurch mosque shootings in March 2019, the government implemented strict gun control reforms. Within weeks, Parliament passed a ban on military-style semi-automatic weapons, nearly unanimously. The months-long government buyback program, by the end of 2019, collected over 56,000 banned firearms and almost 200,000 illegal gun parts. 'It's surreal to watch this,' said Utz, 'because it feels like another planet.' The parliamentary system in New Zealand also favors the election of women in Parliament. Still, Ardern is something of a unicorn in today's tumultuous right-leaning times. 'You see the political will behind the scenes,' said Utz. 'And you see the passion, and you feel her commitment to these issues. We didn't want to make a film that was dissecting all of her policies. We wanted this to be an intimate, personal journey of a woman on the world stage, facing all sorts of things that women face: the balance of work and motherhood, what it looks like to have a supportive partner. This was a family story, too. You were invested in them as a family, because they were a unit, that's how she functioned, that's how she did her job.' Another aspect of the Ardern story: New Zealand has always been a progressive country. But that did not protect her when the wolves began to circle. Her popularity soared and then fell after months of organized protests. 'Russian cells were pumping disinformation into New Zealand,' said Utz. 'The New Zealand public was interacting with that disinformation at a much higher rate than other countries at that time. There was the anti-vaccine sentiment, of course, that we saw in lots of places in the world, that became a powerful force. And Quanon and our American politics were being looked at and studied and admired.' When the economy tanked after COVID, Ardern was under tremendous pressure, and decided to resign before the end of her term. 'A lot of people have anger towards her, still to this day, about her policies,' said Utz, '[saying] they were too draconian, too strict, put too much emphasis on life and not enough on the economy, although [Ardern's government] did do a lot to support families and people during the pandemic. You could find people on both sides of that issue.' As the movie hits theaters, Utz is 'secretly thrilled that we got a film about a progressive politician into theaters nationwide,' she said. 'It feels like something unique right now. People are desperate for some light and some inspiration. And she's good at that.' Where Ardern goes, applause follows. 'We could not move anywhere in Park City without being stopped by somebody in the streets,' said Utz. 'Since then, it's been playing at festivals, and we're getting the same reaction everywhere. There's palpable emotion in the room. We opened Sundance Mexico City last week. It's hitting a nerve, it's touching something inside.' At her Live Talks Los Angeles event, Ardern held the audience in her hand. She knows where the laughs and groans are and that she represents the polar opposite of Donald Trump. She's everything that our current administration is not. And she offers hope for what an alternative could look like. She told a story about the early days of her experience in Parliament. After a particularly grueling round of debate one day, Ardern went to one of the tougher politicians and asked how she should toughen up. He said: 'Just a minute, don't toughen up. If you toughen up, you will lose your empathy, and that is what's going to make you good at your job.' That was the moment, Ardern said, 'that I decided that actually thin-skin sensitivity, it's all empathy. And he was right, if I lost it, I lost something else. So that was just going to have to be the price I was going to pay. Politics was going to feel hard, but maybe it was meant to feel hard.' From there, Ardern learned to ignore comments, to filter, to avoid reviews. 'I would decide when I engaged on social media and when I didn't,' said Ardern. 'And when I was Prime Minister, I knew the media, and it was a saving grace, because it meant I dealt with the issue of the day, not the commentary on the issue of the day, and it meant that I was always facing forward, rather than trying to correct something that had happened in the past.' She also took control of her schedule. 'I was in a role where it was assumed that you couldn't,' said Ardern. And she focused on finding quality time for her child. 'The thing I found the hardest was I might be physically there, but I wasn't always mentally there. And so if I'm going to be home for that time, I need to make bath time count. I thought about the memories I wanted to have of that time, and I didn't want her to see a stressed mom.' At the end of 'Prime Minister,' Ardern and Gaylord get married. 'It's always a good thing,' said Utz. 'Can you have a wedding? Use it.' 'Prime Minister' opens from Magnolia Pictures on Friday, June 13. Best of IndieWire The Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in June, from 'Vertigo' and 'Rear Window' to 'Emily the Criminal' All 12 Wes Anderson Movies, Ranked, from 'Bottle Rocket' to 'The Phoenician Scheme' Nightmare Film Shoots: The 38 Most Grueling Films Ever Made, from 'Deliverance' to 'The Wages of Fear'
