Former New Zealand Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern has made an 11th-hour plea to Kiwis to return Labour to power, citing progress on fighting child poverty and reducing emissions.
Labour is in a fight for its political survival ahead of Saturday's election, with polls showing the party is set to lose government to the centre-right National party.
Ardern, who left office in January citing exhaustion, is now based in the United States as she completes a fellowship at Harvard University.
She returned to the political fray on Wednesday in trademark fashion: speaking direct to camera in a Facebook live video, a medium she used heavily during the Covid-19 pandemic to explain government decisions to Kiwis.
"It's nice to join you briefly ... I haven't been very present during this election and that was a deliberate decision on my part," she said.
"When I left, part of that decision really needed to be to hand over the political mantle to others.
"But I would hate for anyone to think that simply because I have removed myself from political debate I no longer than an opinion."
The Labour leader endorsed the centre-left party last week in an Instagram post showing that she voted from New York.
In Wednesday morning's video, viewed more than 160,000 times since it was uploaded, she explained why.
"Vote for what you believe in," she said.
"For me, my decisions have always been around children ... child poverty mattered a lot to me.
"In the last six years we have made a lot of gains. We've started to see child poverty track in the direction that we need it to.
"But it is not a given that if Labour is no longer in government that it will stay the same. In fact we know it won't.
"So if you believe in continuing to reduce child poverty then it's a simple decision and Labour is the party that is continuing to promote that."
Ardern, made a dame grand companion in the King's Birthday Honours in June, also argued for Labour's climate credentials.
"We've seen emissions start to reduce in New Zealand. Reducing our emissions takes deliberate investment in policy and time," she said.
"If your heart is in making sure we protect our environment and our climate, then again I would say vote for that."
Whether or not Ardern got involved in the campaign has been the subject of much speculation.
The phenomenon behind 'Jacindamania' in 2017 won a second term in 2020 with a historic 50 per cent vote share.
However, she became a reduced figure as backlash to Labour's Covid-era policies grew in 2021 and 2022.
Some believed Ardern joining Labour's campaign might be a net negative, but not leader Chris Hipkins who called it "absolutely a help".
"Jacinda cares really passionately about the issues she was talking about (and) Jacinda knows the progress we've made in those areas would be at risk," he said.
Labour's campaign team followed her video by reinforcing her message on child poverty.
"If National wins, children in poverty will lose," Finance Minister Grant Robertson, and Ardern's closest political ally, said.
Labour makes that claim based on National's alternative budget, which books $2 billion in savings on beneficiaries.
"This is $2 billion that some of the lowest income New Zealanders will not be getting. They are far worse off as a result," Mr Robertson said.
"It Is a real statement of National's priorities that in the same fiscal plan they are giving back to landlords more than $2 billion by restoring interest deductibility."
National still plans to lift benefits each year in line with inflation.
"We are committed to ensure that the social welfare system we have is sustainable into the future, and to ensure that benefits keep up with the cost of living," finance spokeswoman Nicola Willis said.
"We think inflation-indexing benefits is the principled and correct thing to do."
Last week former Prime Minister Helen Clark urged voters to stick with Labour, while National enlisted another ex-PM, Sir John Key, in an effort to encourage voters to go with National.
