Let me say this, Arena Williams impresses me in the house.

She is always well presented, speaks well and seems to have the ability to get to the guts of a matter and while I rarely, if ever, agree with what she says she is more than a few notches better than most of the other members male or female in the Labour Caucus.

As far as leadership aspirations are concerned I have no idea if that is her ambition but, the candidates are very limited within the current Labour Caucus and she stands out ahead of most. Replacing Chippy as leader is almost certainly too soon but, replacing the inept Carmel Sepuloni in a coup with say Kieran McAnulty (the alleged bully) is not. Williams could then step up to the Leadership after Labour loses the 2026 election.

I mean Arena Williams meets a lot of credentials that Labour hold so dear:

  1. Part Maori.
  2. Female.
  3. An Ardern favourite – may not be so much of an advantage these days.
  4. Entered Parliament by pushing Louisa Wall out of a safe seat.
  5. From South Auckland.

Stuff early this morning had an opinion piece by Arena Williams on the Treaty Principles bill and that is what prompted this post – now I cannot find the bloody thing to link to.

Conclusion:

In my opinion Hipkins will be replaced early in the New Year by a new leadership team of Kieran McAnulty (Leader) with Arena Williams as his Deputy.

When that happens readers will be able to say:

I SAW IT ON NO MINISTER FIRST

Thanks to Greg here is the link to the Stuff Article by Arena Williams.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360504297/national-party-complicit-reckless-exercise