Jacinda Ardern has just announced she will be stepping down as New Zealand’s prime minister, saying she does not have “enough in the tank” to lead.
Ardern is quitting ahead of the country’s next general election in October, shortly after polls suggested her party, Labour, might struggle to get re-elected.
But, after six years in office, Ardern has become a global figure renowned for her progressive politics and ability to cut through to the public, even though New Zealand has a tiny population of just five million.
Here’s why.
1. She broke records from the start of her premiership
She was New Zealand’s third female PM, at 37 and she was the youngest individual to lead the country since Edward Stafford (who was the premier in 1856). That made her world’s youngest female head of government.
2. She gave birth less than one year into her time in office
Ardern was only the world’s second elected head of government to give birth while holding office. The last person was Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan’s two-time prime minister who was in office from 1988 to 1990, and 1993 to 1996.
Both gave birth at the age of 37, too.
Ardern took six weeks of maternity leave and handed powers over to her deputy, before returning to work. She was credited with helping to prove it was possible to be a mother and have a career at a time when politics in particular still struggles with gender equality (see the 2021 row over MP Stella Creasy bringing her three-month-old into the Commons).
She brought her daughter Neve to the UN General Assembly in September 2018 too, making her the first female world leader to do so.
She also had her child with her long-term partner (notably, not husband) presenter Clarke Gayford, again defying societal norms.
3. How she handled Covid
Ardern’s Covid strategy has been praised as being one of the world’s most successful, partly because she put lockdown and border control measures in place so quikcly.
Although New Zealand followed a zero-Covid strategy for the first 18 months of the pandemic, Ardern also changed tactic when she realised it was not sustainable to continue locking down the country over just a small number of cases.
But, this change in direction only came after vaccines became more accessible for the country, meaning it had one of the world’s lowest mortality rates (and there was an increase in life expectancy too) across New Zealand.
She followed the science, and encouraged the public to follow safety precautions.
New Zealand dropped vaccine passes and vaccine mandates for some of the workforce back in April 2022. Ardern made it clear that this only happened due to high vaccination rates and better data to understand why environments are high risk.
4. Cultural sensitivities with the Maori
Ardern repeatedly showed her respect for the Maori community, the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand.
Back in 2018, she stayed for an unprecedented length of time in Waitangi for the annual Waitangi Day (widely seen as when New Zealand became a country). She also became the first female prime minister to speak from the top marae, a sacred place in Polynesian societies, winning over many Maori leaders in the process.
Ardern also wore a traditional Maori cloak from the Maori designer during the Queen’s funeral in October 2022.
Ardern formally apologised for New Zealand’s “dawn raids” in 2021, too.
This was the historic racist policing of people living in the Pacific which mainly occurred in the 1970s, where police would hunt down anyone who stayed too long on their visa.
She participated in a traditional Samoan forgiveness ceremony, and offered scholarships to Pacific communities, while her government promised to include the dawn raids into the history curriculum.
5. Handling disasters
In March 2019, two mosques in Christchurch were attacked – 51 people were fatally shot by a white supremacist.
Ardern’s empathic response, including describing it as a terrorist attack while refusing to utter the attacker’s name in public out of respect for his victims, triggered international praise.
She famously hugged a member of the Christchurch Muslim community, and a photograph of the occasion was projected onto the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.
She quickly introduced gun control legislation in stark contrast to the conflict over gun use in the US.
Ardern was equally as compassionate when the White Island volcano erupted in December 2019 killed 22 people.
6. Her clapbacks
Despite widespread criticism, Ardern was praised for her ability to hit back while maintaining her composure.
Donald Trump once pointed at her at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and said: “This lady just caused a lot of upset in her country.”
She replied: “No one marched when I was elected.”
Only recently, she rebuffed a journalist who asked if she and her Finnish counterpart Sanna Marin got along because of their age.
A male journalist from a New Zealand radio network, Newstalk ZB, said: “A lot of people will be wondering are you two meeting just because you’re similar in age and got a lot of common stuff there, when you got into politics and stuff, or if Kiwis can expect more details down the line?”
Ardern looked slightly perplexed and asked: ”I wonder if anyone ever asked Barack Obama and John Key if they met because they were of similar age.”
It’s also been noted that she has received “extreme hate” while in office, according to Maori leaders, with many people admiring her bravery for continuing against such pushback.