Maori Protest Bill That Is Part of Sharp Rightward Shift in New Zealand

U.S.|New Zealand Veers Sharply Right, Leaving Jacinda Ardern’s Era Behind

A year before American voters’ anger over the cost of living helped Donald J. Trump win the presidency, similar sentiments in New Zealand thrust in the nation’s most conservative government in decades.

Now, New Zealand bears little resemblance to the country recently led by Jacinda Ardern, whose brand of compassionate, progressive politics made her a global symbol of anti-Trump liberalism.

The new government — a coalition of the main center-right party and two smaller, more populist ones — has reversed many of Ms. Ardern’s policies. It has rescinded a world-leading ban on smoking for future generations, repealed rules designed to address climate change and put a former arms-industry lobbyist in charge of overhauling the nation’s strict gun laws.

And in a country that has been celebrated for elevating the status of Māori, its Indigenous people, it has challenged their rights and the prominence of their culture and language in public life, driving a wedge into New Zealand society and setting off waves of protests. On Tuesday, tens of thousands of demonstrators — including some who wore traditional Māori attire and performed hakas — converged on Parliament.

“This is nothing more than us having to defend that we exist,” Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, the co-leader of the Te Pāti Māori party, said before the protesters reached Wellington, the capital.

This rightward shift is, in a way, reflective of Ms. Ardern’s complicated legacy at home. Her coronavirus policies were lauded initially but ended up being divisive. The pandemic also left the country with a bruising cost of living. When Ms. Ardern stepped down as prime minister in January 2023, before her second term ended, inflation was hovering at 7 percent.