Tova podcast: Labour insists it was not tactical keeping Dame ...

Tova O’Brien is Stuff’s Chief Political Correspondent and host of the podcast, Tova.

ANALYSIS: “I haven’t been very present this election,” said Dame Jacinda Ardern, stating the bleeding obvious, from New York this week.

Her very conspicuous absence had been causing a wild flurry of questions on the campaign - was Ardern blanking Chippy after he sent so many of her pet policies up in a ball of flames?

Had Labour frozen her out after the post-Covid Ardern backlash?

Had she *gasp* switched allegiances to another party? New Zealand First?!

To be fair, no one was asking that last question, but the first two were very real propositions. And still are, even after her Hail Mary Facebook Live.

Robert Kitchin/Stuff

Former prime minister Jacinda Ardern has been largely absent from the latest campaign.

In an interview for the Tova podcast this week Labour’s campaign chair Megan Woods said it was Ardern who offered, not Labour who went begging, and talked up an earlier social media post from Ardern as proof all was hunky dory, totally normal, nothing to see here.

“We've already seen Jacinda earlier on social media, of course talking about voting,” Woods said. “She had done a post about the fact that she had early voted and obviously that she'd voted two ticks Labour.”

Woods made the point repeatedly that it’s not unusual to bring out former leaders in campaigns, but rather than make it all seem normal, it only served to reinforce the absence of support from Ardern for the overwhelming duration of Chris Hipkins campaign.

ALDEN WILLIAMS/Stuff

“There’s no great Dame Jacinda strategy” – Labour campaign chair Megan Woods on the Tova podcast.

When former Prime Minister Helen Clark showed up at Labour’s campaign launch, it felt distinctly like the party had skipped a former PM in its promotional rollout.

When Sir John Key started popping up to do damage control after Christopher Luxon breathed new relevance into Winston Peters, again it begged the question, where’s Jacinda?

When Clark made a further push on social media in response to Key’s pitch, Ardern really did start to look like the odd one out.

Rolling Ardern out just a few days before polling day may have felt a bit reactive, like a last gasp only after the headlines starting questioning her failure to publicly back her team.

Bruce Mackay/Stuff

Jacinda Ardern voiced her support for Chris Hipkins this week.

But Woods insisted Labour had not made a tactical decision to keep Ardern away because they were worried that some of the toxicity levelled at her might cause shrapnel wounds to Hipkins.

“There’s no great Dame Jacinda strategy,” said Woods. “It’s just really great to have her kind of popping up reminding people to vote.”

As for the succession plan to Ardern’s succession plan, listen to the Tova podcast to hear Woods’ response to how long Hipkins has before his caucus rolls him.

To hear the full interviews with Megan Woods and National’s campaign chair Chris Bishop download the Tova podcast when it drops at 4pm Thursday.