. >> you remember dame jacinda ardern?en a damehood for a stint as the globe's headmistress of covid tyranny. her zealous zero covid scheme kept new zealand shackled in a merciless lockdown for over two long years with the jab practically hammered into the veins of teachers, police and health care warriors. her autocratic whims included slam ing the door on overseas kiwis yearning to get back home and enforcing some of the strictest lockdowns the world knew her resignation came with a tired sigh of being burnt out, burnt out? well, it sounds more like a timely exit before an inevitable booting out sweet jacinda ardern serenaded china. she was jeopardising the vital five eyes intelligence alliance, and meanwhile she misplaced her vocal chords when it came to uyghurs languishing in chinese concentration camps , perhaps too concentration camps, perhaps too busy buffing a halo to concern herself with minor issues like alleged genocide of muslims . as alleged genocide of muslims. as now, the circus didn't end with jacinda arder

quality of new zealand's fresh water was a key issue in last year's election, with prime minister jacinda ardern in place standards that actually stop the degradation, see material improvements over five years, and within a lifetime we'll see our kids swimming in that water again. ♪♪♪ yaara: to reduce pollution the government has introduced fresh water reforms. the most contentious issue is what the nitrate level in waterways should be. the government set it at 2.4 milligrams per liter, but that's provoking furious debate. mike: we can take it back to our analyzer, and we can get an instant result on the nitrate levels. yaara: back at the selwyn river, dr. mike joy and lan pham are testing the river's nitrate level. ♪♪♪ mike: the sample's been analyzed, and we'll just see what it comes up as. wow, 9.66 milligrams. that is--that is crazy. the current national policy statement, the limit is 2.4 milligrams. so it's four times that. lan: as alarming as this number is, this is totally typical of virtually all the groundwater and surface water systems that you'll get in this whole area. yaara: dr. joy

, on, and just talk about the legacy issue of jacinda ardern, who of coursen she came to power and notjust in new zealand. was her decision to step down at the root of the government's problems? i down at the root of the government's roblems? ~ �* , ., ., problems? i think it's more a symptom _ problems? i think it's more a symptom then _ problems? i think it's more a symptom then a _ problems? i think it's more a symptom then a cause. - problems? i think it's more a symptom then a cause. she l problems? i think it's more a - symptom then a cause. she stepped down — i say she would've cruised into her third term. part of the reason was there was no gas in the tank, because the government was having a really tough time. and it's hard to see her... that said, the polls were high when she was laid up, so. 50 polls were high when she was laid u . , so. polls were high when she was laid u, so. ., ., ., polls were high when she was laid u,so. ., ., ., , up, so. so if the national party nets in, up, so. so if the national party gets in. how — up, so. so if the natio

of that time by jacinda ardern elianne. a dramatic elianne. victory under jacinda ardern, just a few years ago in 2020. but obviously since then we've had lockdown, we've had authoritarian laws coming through. she's anti free speech, which she hammered farmers as well. so she went after and we've seen politicians brought down by this. they think the metropolitan elite are all that matters. so they go after farmers . they say, oh, you're farmers. they say, oh, you're emitting much co2 or emitting too much co2 or whatever it is too imposed. all these farmers and these regulations on farmers and they pushed back. they really pushed back. and people farmers people people love their farmers because they know that's where the from. yeah, because they know that's where th says from. yeah, because they know that's where thsays here from. yeah, because they know that's where thsays here very rom. yeah, because they know that's where thsays here very clearly yeah, it says here very clearly they're forgiven. they're not forgiven. >> covid, but it's >> ar

reporter: another example is what former new zealand prime minister jacinda ardern did in 2019, whenonal budget that prioritized citizen well-being and happiness over gdp and economic growth. under the budget, all new spending was required to advance government priorities like improving mental health, reducing child poverty, and addressing the inequalities faced by its indigenous population. degrowthers envision an economy driven by alternative principles. kai: the wager on degrowth is that we need to imagine a different future. a new relationship between humans and non-human nature in which humanity, but also nature, can flourish and thrive. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] from berlin. tonight, a major escalation in israel's war against hamas. israel's military says it is expanding its ground operations in the gaza strip and wrapping up airstrikes on hamas targets inside the territory as it gets closer to launching a full-scale ground invasion. also tonight, the u.n. looms of a

jacinda ardern resigned as prime minister injanuary, and hipkins has struggled in the polls.th bbc studios — after he was involved in a high speed crash during filming last december. flintoff�*s compensation deal with the commercial wing of the bbc is reported to be worth nine million pounds. flintoff�*s legal team says — he is still recovering from "life—alteringly significant" injuries. travelling to jordan travelling tojordan and qatar on friday alone. it is an effort to help prevent the conflict from spreading and use their leverage with hamas to release hostages. every diplomatic with me now is out state department correspondent barbara plett usher. prevent this from going beyond israel and hamas. _ prevent this from going beyond israel and hamas. insure - prevent this from going beyond i israel and hamas. insure restraint over how israel responds because the particular brutality of the attacks and the saudi foreign ministry gave its strongest criticism of israel yet saying that it's condemning israel for targeting defenseless civilians and also, they been talking with t

the labour party of former prime minister jacinda ardern won just 27% of the vote.voters cited the cost of living as their major concern. in all show you, voters have rejected a historic referendum -- in australia, voters have rejected a historic referendum that would have recognized indigenous peoples in the australian constitution and established an indigenous voice to parliament committee. in a joint statement, groups representing australia's aboriginal people and torres strait islanders called for a week of silence. they wrote -- "that people who have only been on this continent for 235 years would refuse to recognize those whose home this land has been for 60,000 and more years, is beyond reason." this is dean parkin, who led the campaign to support the referendum. >> i want to state directly to those australians who voted no with hardness in your hearts, please understand -- people never wanted to take anything from you. we have never and will never mean you harm. all we have wanted was to join with you our indigenous story, our indigenous culture, and not to

hasn't from new zealand where it hasn't even introduced yet, even been introduced yet, thereby jacinda ardernt's going to lead, like you say, to some pretty absurd outcomes . one of the obvious outcomes. one of the obvious consequences will be that people who are old enough buy who are old enough to buy cigarettes will sell them to people who aren't equally people who aren't and equally obviously the black market, which to which already according to government makes up 18% government figures, makes up 18% of sales , will blossom of tobacco sales, will blossom even further. well christopher, that's the thing i worry about most on this proposal is that if you make a once legal product illegal, as we found with prohibition, then that really ends up being a blank check to organised crime because they then take over the market and in 20 years or so, 30 years it would be black market cigarettes that would be organised crime. >> and it's very difficult to make a once legal product illegal. >> yeah, south africa banned tobacco during covid during the lockdowns. the government took the excuse to use i

>> when people think about new zealand politics they think about jacinda ardern, which is exited stagent with her. chris hopkins disassociated and is running on a little more centrist than may be some of those were, so it very much is a pretty good sized pivot from a we are in this country last year regardless of who wins. haidi: derek wallbank there with a look ahead as kiwis head to the polls. a vote critical in australia is also taking place. if successful, they would advise the government on issues that would impact aboriginal australians. paul allen has more. paul: early voting has been underway now for the referendum. it proposes a simple yes-no question on a proposal to alter the constitution to recognize the first peoples of austria by establishing an aboriginal and torres strait islander voice. you approve -- do you approve this alteration? the prime minister is delivering on that election promise by holding this referendum. indigenous australians are overrepresented in almost every poor statistic, including poverty, lower academic achievement and poverty rates. the voice is i

rishi from new zealand, jacinda ardern that was something that they were into over there. he had to say . listen to what he had to say. >> smoking places huge pressures on the nhs and costs our country . £17 billion a year. we have a chance to cut cancer deaths by a quarter since significantly ease those pressures and protect our children . and we should take it i >> see the number of people smoking is actually massively. i mean, when you look at any graph, it's such a stark decline in 20, 22, 13% there or thereabouts of people over the age of 18 smoked. it's rapidly declining. do we need this policy? >> of course not. i mean, this is this is sort of nanny state, not essence that people just don't don't need. it really is. and do you know what it'll do is it'll drive it underground. guess what'll happen if you're a 15 year old now and you can't buy cigarettes in 3 or 4 years time, then you'll either pretend you're of a different age or you'll get your mates to buy it or maybe it'll increase the likelihood that go and smoke likelihood that you go and smoke drugs something e

we saw the vote shift from the labour party which had been in power since the start of jacinda ardern'srror. it's a far cry going into this weekends elections, we saw the ships to the center-right national party. looks like they will be able to form a government with one or two allies, there still a bit of horse-trading in play. what is fascinating to me is that, the labour party's handling of covid was well thought of. is this a reflection of this tickler political situation or is this going to be a broader trend that we see with the u.s. and canadian elections that are still to come, where the incumbent governments that herded these economies and these populations through covid, are going to see that backlash as reducing the economic struggles -- the struggles with inflation and with cost-of-living? is this going to become part of the broader global political trend as we get into the next few months? shery: and how these administrations deal with geopolitical challenges as well i know of course, the top story right now is, 600,000 people have left gaza city as israel's troops gear up

could be ban on smoking be an incremental ban on smoking and that's exactly the same playbook as jacinda ardern 17 year old now can't buy cigarettes. the idea would be that when they then turn 18, they still couldn't 19, that when they then turn 18, they still couldn't19, 20, 21 and as each year goes fonnard, the level at which you can the age at which you can buy cigarettes rises. that's a policy that apparently a number 10 has been pulling and they find is quite popular , find is quite popular, apparently. and so and so this could be a significant point in the speech. also, this much touted, much fabled ban on disposable vaping, quite possibly that will be announced in this speech as well, which will be seen as a as a bit of a populist move . populist move. >> lots of applause now because penny morton, who's the leader of the commons, she's just got on stage she's a very on the stage now. she's a very good will good public speaker and she will make will make make them laugh. she will make lots jokes and look at the lots of jokes and look at the applause she's getting because she the she was v