WELLINGTON: New Zealand's opposition said on Sunday (Oct 18) Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's landslide election win means she no longer has any excuses for failing to deliver on her visionary promises.
Ardern won a historic outright majority in Saturday's poll – the first since New Zealand adopted proportional voting in 1996 – meaning she can implement policies without support from minor parties.
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The charismatic leader was criticised during her first term for not accomplishing key promises such as protecting the environment and reducing child poverty.
READ: New Zealand's Ardern to form government within 3 weeks after historic election win
Opposition leader Judith Collins said Ardern's election success meant she could no longer blame coalition partners for frustrating her progressive agenda because she now had a free hand to do as she pleased.
"The government has got the mandate to do all the things that they've promised to do, so they can't blame anyone else for not delivering," she told reporters.
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Campaigning during the vote centred on the government's successful coronavirus response, with Ardern dubbing it the "COVID election", and crisis management has defined the centre-left leader's first term.
READ: PM Lee congratulates New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on election win
In addition to the pandemic, she responded with compassion and decisive policy action after the March 2019 Christchurch mosques attack, when a white supremacist gunman killed 51 Muslim worshippers.
She also comforted a shocked nation last December when a volcanic eruption at White Island, also known as Whakaari, killed 21 people and left dozens more with horrific burns.
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New Zealand has recorded only 25 coronavirus deaths in a population of five million, which Collins said boosted Ardern's standing in an electorate anxious about the pandemic.
"It was a tough campaign against a formidable opponent, and an opponent who was also seen as the face of the COVID-19 (response)," the 61-year-old said.
"HOSPITAL PASS"
Collins, known as "Crusher" for her hardline policies when police minister in a previous government, questioned Ardern's big-spending response to New Zealand's virus-induced recession.
"I hope that our country does a lot better than I think the current government's fiscal policies and settings will enable it to do," she said.
"I feel very concerned for my country."
In her victory speech late Saturday, Ardern flagged increased state housing, more renewable energy and other infrastructure investment.
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