The Prime Minister is holding fast to the "difficult" three waters and media reforms because she believes it's necessary.
With both reform programmes, it was about "trying to prevent issues getting worse" rather than altering things for the sake of it, Jacinda Ardern said as she reflected on 2022.
When asked if it came down to inadequate communication from the Government about the changes and why they were needed, Ardern said: "There's a range of reasons why it has been a difficult piece of reform and change."
She said politicians needed to continuously reflect on how they could have done things better.
"It doesn't change the fact that we've been presented with problems we've needed to address - that's politics. We just happen to have had a few more problems than most Governments to address."
Ardern continued: "You always look back and think: 'Are there ways we could've embarked on the debate differently?' But I still believe the endpoint would've been the same."
Scientists believe the politics of three waters "drowned out" discussions about health. In March, Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta admitted "underestimating" how much the public understood their water pipes.
Meanwhile, a Q+A interview with Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson put the RNZ-TVNZ merger in the headlines for all the wrong reasons rather than the Government's stated purposes for the reforms: declining TVNZ ad revenues, the growth of misinformation and the need for diverse content.
As for what 2023 has in store, Ardern said she knew there was a lot of anxiety about what could happen. But she said New Zealand and its economy would be "well-placed" to get through it "stronger than most" other countries.
She repeated earlier comments that ministers would use the summer break to reconsider their policy priorities.
1News sat down with each political party leader to reflect on the year that's been. Watch the rest of the interviews in this series: Christopher Luxon, David Seymour, Marama Davidson and James Shaw, Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer.
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