{"id":19463,"date":"2024-11-28T16:41:04","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T16:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19463"},"modified":"2024-11-28T16:41:04","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T16:41:04","slug":"nzs-prime-ministers-ranked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/?p=19463","title":{"rendered":"NZ\u2019s Prime Ministers ranked"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>\t\t<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"100px\" frameborder=\"0\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" data-src=\"https:\/\/embeds.rnz.co.nz\/episode\/946a4114-486e-441a-b8ef-d1def6c69463\"><\/iframe><noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/embeds.rnz.co.nz\/episode\/946a4114-486e-441a-b8ef-d1def6c69463\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s far too early to judge the leadership of Christopher Luxon, with just a year behind him in the top job.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why he\u2019s been left off the list of 23 former Prime Ministers ranked from the best to the worst since the first one gave himself that title. (Our leaders were Premiers until Richard Seddon in 1893.)<\/p>\n<p>Left out were Prime Ministers whose tenures were considered too short to judge.<\/p>\n<p>The rankings come from three historians asked by The Listener to do the job, and today on <em>The Detail<\/em> we talk to two of them, Otago University professor of history Dr Erik Olssen and Victoria\u2019s Dr Jim McAloon.<\/p>\n<p>McAloon says there are a lot of issues facing Luxon and a lot of challenges he has to meet, but it\u2019s too early to say how well he\u2019ll do at meeting them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPerhaps all I will say is that some of our most successful [Prime Ministers] \u2013 Fraser, Clark, Keith Holyoake \u2013 all had very long political apprenticeships, which Christopher Luxon has not had. And I think there\u2019s something in that, that those successful ones knew thoroughly how the system worked. They\u2019d done their apprenticeship.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cMr Luxon may develop into a successful Prime Minister, but 12 months in it\u2019s just too early to say.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The three judges didn\u2019t always agree on the rankings, but all picked the same number one \u2013 World War II\u2019s leader, Peter Fraser.<\/p>\n<p>Fraser was respected and trusted by Winston Churchill, was instrumental in establishing the United Nations, then oversaw post war reconstruction and was possibly, in the words of the third historian, Dr Michael Bassett, who\u2019s written a biography of Fraser, \u201cthe biggest single figure in the creation of New Zealand\u2019s welfare state\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>But being thrust into an emergency situation and handling it well doesn\u2019t necessarily mean you will feature highly on this list.<\/p>\n<p>Dame Jacinda Ardern may be the darling of the rest of the world but she\u2019s near the bottom of the heap in this exercise \u2013 Bassett and Olssen both put her at 21 out of 23.<\/p>\n<p>McAloon was more forgiving and placed her at eight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the maxims that runs through this exercise is that some Prime Ministers are lucky and some are unlucky,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI guess before Covid you would have said that Jacinda Ardern, on balance, was lucky. But then Covid was one crisis too many and the on-going nature of the pandemic and the resentment that built up in some quarters at the measures taken to deal with that, as well as a great deal of old-fashioned sexist vituperation I have to say, in the end I think pushed her into the unlucky category.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not wanting to exaggerate her virtues or pretend that she didn\u2019t have flaws as a politician \u2026 but maybe there\u2019s a bit of an example there of a prophet not being honoured in their own country, as the old line has it.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cI do give Ardern credit for trying to change the language of politics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Also on today\u2019s podcast we talk about the Prime Minister whose face was plastered on hundreds of thousands of New Zealand homes, the tricky personalities, the victims of our golden age of satire, and the wars that made leaders shine.<\/p>\n<p>Plus, which PM has a university named after him? And did \u201cKing Dick\u201d Seddon really try dirty tricks to stop women getting the vote, but then take credit for it when it happened?<\/p>\n<p>You won\u2019t hear every Prime Minister\u2019s name in the podcast but if you want to pore over the details of the rankings, grab a copy of The Listener from November 16 and read Eric Frykberg\u2019s cover story \u2026 it\u2019s also available <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/the-listener\/politics\/the-real-power-list-nzs-prime-ministers-rated\/UEHAIM2NQRDKNPWR3HNKBLKK6Q\/\">online <\/a>but it\u2019s paywalled.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Check out how to listen to and follow\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><strong>The Detail<\/strong><em><strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/linktr.ee\/thedetailnz\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheDetailRNZ\/\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>\u00a0or following us on\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thedetailnz\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"750\" height=\"234\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsroom.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/detail-footer.jpg.png?resize=750%2C234&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-230021\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsroom.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/detail-footer.jpg.png?w=750&amp;ssl=1 750w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsroom.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/detail-footer.jpg.png?resize=300%2C94&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsroom.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/detail-footer.jpg.png?resize=400%2C125&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsroom.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/detail-footer.jpg.png?resize=706%2C220&amp;ssl=1 706w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsroom.co.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/detail-footer.jpg.png?w=370&amp;ssl=1 370w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<hr style=\"border-top: 2px solid #ccc; margin-top: 20px;\">\n<p><em>Source: <\/em> <em><a href=\"https:\/\/politics.einnews.com\/article\/764613527\/LZoxIbEer5PXPvgc?ref=rss&amp;ecode=kmfm9fDbRbj4OPCJ\">politics.einnews.com\u2026<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s far too early to judge the leadership of Christopher Luxon, with just a year behind him in the top job. That\u2019s why he\u2019s been left off the list of 23 former Prime Ministers ranked from the best to the worst since the first one gave himself that title. (Our leaders were Premiers until Richard [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19463"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19463\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gpt.m2mbeta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}