Colin James: Beyond Jacinda, a generation hungry for change
25 minutes to read
By: Colin James
Will the transformation promised by Jacinda Ardern in her first term as PM be delivered or will a new generation force change as the boomers once did? An essay by Colin James. To talk about what lies beyond Jacinda is not to say the Prime Minister is transitory. Jacinda Ardern has demonstrated the requisite skills and resilience to see through this second term and, if she wants, have a fair shot at a third term.
But her Government needs to be seen in a wider and longer context. The wider context is a rapidly changing, turbulent and seriously challenging external world. The longer context is a decade ahead of climate, ecosystem and new-technology forces that will require major policy change and during which will rise a generation with different ideas of how that policy should change. Do Ardern and her X- and Y-generation contemporaries have the mentality to make