Politics in a Pandemic - Jacinda Ardern and New Zealand's 2020 Election

Te Herenga Waka (Victoria University Press), 2021. 504 pages.

It includes contributions from the New Zealander of the Year, Jacinda Ardern, and the Wellingtonian of the Year, epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker, as well as the National Party's Judith Collins, Greens' co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson, ACT's leader David Seymour, the Minister for Covid-19 Response Chris Hipkins, and award-winning journalists Tova O'Brien and Henry Cooke, along with many other reporters, pollsters and academics, together providing 35 perspectives on the election. Personal reflections are complemented by UMR survey results, first-hand campaign accounts, the perspectives of overseas observers, and analysis of everything from political cartoons and billboards to leaders debates, political party funding, policy and populism. It covers the departure of New Zealand First, the return of the Maori Party, nationwide referendums on euthanasia and the legalisation of cannabis, and the Christchurch mosque attacks. But ultimately, the 2020 election was a referendum on Jacinda Ardern's leadership in a time of pandemic. This book explains why she won and what this might mean for the country?s future.