Graham Adams: Is Jacinda Ardern the Messiah? Or just a very crafty politician?

The Prime Minister’s politics — including her stance towards the Mongrel Mob and the Taliban — can be baffling. Graham Adams reckons answers lie in her past as a Mormon.

Whether it is from politeness or a lack of curiosity, it is rare for journalists or commentators to dwell on Jacinda Ardern’s religious history and how it might have shaped her politics.

When the Prime Minister is occasionally asked, she bats the question away with a stock answer: she rejected religion in her mid-twenties and never looked back. As far as the public knows, the Prime Minister was brought up as a Mormon but renounced her faith in 2005 — and that was that.

This view was encapsulated in her response to a question about whether she had smoked marijuana: “I was once a Mormon and then I wasn’t — that’s how I’ll put that.”

Gerry Eckhoff: Conscience and the Euthanasia Bill

When the seismic plates of public opinion grind against each other as they inevitably do over complex social issues such as abortion, prostitution, homosexual law reform, gay marriage, the various political parties employ a conscience vote rather than “whip” their MPs into towing the party line.  The Voluntary Euthanasia Bill is the latest of the social issues where MPs are allowed a so called “free vote”. 

It is important to note that our Parliament has adopted a stance of being secular which means the clear separation of church and state.  No laws can be passed based on privilege or preference being given to any religion or religious grouping.