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Chris Hipkins was confirmed as New Zealand’s next prime minister on Sunday, picking Carmel Sepuloni as deputy prime minister, marking the first time a person of Pacific Island descent has promoted to the position.
Mr Hipkins has the unanimous support of Labor politicians as he is the only candidate running to succeed Jacinda Ardern, who stunned the nation on Thursday by announcing her resignation , which she served as leader for more than five years.
Mr Hipkins will be formally sworn in to his new role on Wednesday. He faces a tough general election in less than nine months, with opinion polls showing his party trailing its conservative opposition.
No other leadership candidate has shown the party has united behind Mr Hipkins to avoid a protracted contest and any signs of disunity after Ms Ardern leaves.
Outlining his priorities, Mr Hipkins said he knew the economy would be at the center of his government’s thinking as he knew many families were struggling due to an “inflation pandemic”.
Asked whether he would take the same transformative approach to government that Ms Ardern had promised after winning the top job for the first time, Mr Hipkins said he wanted to get back to basics.
“We’re going to have a very strong government focused on the livelihood issues that matter to New Zealanders and are relevant to the times we live in,” Mr Hipkins said. “2017 was five and a half years ago. It happened, and a lot has happened since then.”
Like Mr Hipkins, Ms Sepuloni first became a politician 15 years ago and was most recently one of the government’s senior ministers responsible for social development and employment.
She said it was “hard to imagine a working-class girl from a small New Zealand town” ending up as deputy prime minister.
“I want to acknowledge how important this is to our Pacific community,” Ms Sepuloni said. “I am proudly Samoan, Tongan and New Zealand European, representing generations of New Zealanders of mixed ancestry.”
Ms Sepuloni said she had received a lot of depressing news about another glass ceiling being broken.
Opposition Leader Christopher Luxon told reporters he had congratulated Mr Hipkins via text message. But Mr Luxon said Mr Hipkins and Ms Sepuloni’s government had “failed miserably” to deliver on its mandate and that it would be much the same under a leadership change.
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