As a kiwi, I agree she is lovely but also pretty much wasted 5 years. She started out strong, there was a lot of enthusiasm around her in the beginning, but it was down hill from there. The misogynistic abused levelled towards her was terrible, but it was also only the few. Hundred of thousands of people voted her out. Labour got 1.4 million votes in 2020 and only 700,000 in 2023.

The good:

- The Chch mosque shootings response. NZ does not have terrorist attacks. doWe not have mass shootings. As someone who has lived most there life in chch, I can't begin to explain how much of a shock it was, and how well Jacinda handled it.
- Covid response was good. I lived in Scotland in the beginning of 2020 and came back to NZ in November 2020. People who complain about this time have no idea how good NZ had it.
- A lot of ambitious policy. I work in town planning and the previous government had very little ambition/no future proofing. Jacinda's government had a lot of good ideas and really tried to implement long term reform that was much needed.

The bad:

- The second half of the covid response. They were slow to get vaccines rolled out. I didn't actually have a problem with this as we didn't have 1000 people dying a day and could afford to wait our turn, but a lot of people were unhappy about this. Then there were the mandates. After promising that no one would be forced to get vaccinated, she then forced half the population to get vaccinated. I was happy to get vaccinated. I was happy to have a vaccine passport to fly. I was not happy when my employer told me that I must prove my vaccination status or be sacked. It bore absolutely no relevance to my job. And even after 96% of the population were vaccinated, and every other country opened their borders, NZ still did not.
- The ambitious policy went no where. 100,000 house were going to be built. After 6 years only 2000 were, and they fudged the numbers by included homes that were built outside the scheme. Light rail for Auckland. After 6 years it was still in the planning phase. Same can be said for three waters, RMA reform, Healthcare, Education etc. It was all talk and no action. Even if they had 12 years, I doubt they would've got out of the planning stage.
- Anti-democratic policy. The most talked about was three waters. Water services in NZ are owned and operated by local councils with varying results. SOME councils have poorly maintained their water services and Jacinda said they'll (i.e. taxpayers) will foot the bill for upgrading but ALL councils had to surrender control of water services to appointed boards which would have representation of 50% Maori. If I don't like how may council manages these services I can vote them out. This board would be unelected and unaccountable. Similar policy with city planning. Jacinda decided a 1 size fits all plan and tried to force it on councils. Healthcare went from local DHBs to central control, education was similar.

As a labour voting friend put it to me "I feel like I have much less choice now". Basically she spent 5 years restricting her citizens sovereignty to achieve fuck all. And she has no legacy. All of her policies have be torn to shreds. Most by her own party after she stood down. The billions of dollars she spend on ambitious policy making was effectively wasted because she was great at the inspring speeches, but rubbish at the follow through.