Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Jacinda Ardern. Jacinda only got into power because Winston Peter's liked to cause problems for the National party. To see people from across society, people who maybe have never even known anyone who goes to a mosque, come out with the flowers and the donations and say: this is not the New Zealand we know and love.). He may have had in mind Arderns deputy Peters, whose NZ First has delivered dog whistles about immigrants and New Zealand values for decades. But rather than just throw people off welfare, Richardson replaced the very ideas that underpinned it. I can do what I do because I have help and I try to talk about that a lot., What about the anti-Trump label, I asked her. Cabinet is a massive beast. Of the Blair years more broadly, she said: What you do with policy, it demonstrated to me, can be completely overshadowed by decisions in principle. It was half a lifetime ago, she guesses. A year earlier, she had become the first female prime minister to speak at the Waitangi pwhiri, a significant moment in the New Zealand calendar, and the youngest, at 37. They do it mostly because they want to confuse you. On the contrary, gun crimes rose to a 10-year high after the law went into effect, according to Radio New Zealand. So, what progressive answers to the financial crisis did Ardern and her comrades come up with? Of course she needed to project New Zealands voice, but her focus was on domestic priorities. Talking to mourners after the national remembrance service in Christchurch. But a closer look at the details shows how Labour plays a central role in that neoliberal order. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's full speech at the opening of the APEC CEO Summit 2021. The conversations about it afterwards Ive read these pieces where people have analysed the likes of this [speech], she says, waving the A4 sheet of notes in her hand, grimly laughing. And one of the first high-profile fights it picked with its newly gained political capital was with public-sector workers and the union that represents them, whom it tried to hit with a pay freeze. We would be fools to believe political decisions are primarily evidence based. At Buckingham Palace with the Queen in April 2017. Read this book, former Member of Parliament Marilyn Waring. But even the ugliest of viruses can exist in places they are not welcome. I thought there were none. That morning, Friday 15 March, she had surprised a crowd of local school students who were taking part in the global climate strike. They were stories of those who were born here, grew up here, or who had made New Zealand their home. On the front are a series of notes, scrawled in Arderns rounded handwriting, growing more hurried and less legible as they cross the page. She is very vocal. Can I give you an observation? One is the idea that you just talk, and you confuse people, and if you talk fast enough and quickly enough, etcetera, and no one can keep up and they think theyre the dumb ones, and youre the bright one, and they dont know what youre saying, but youre saying something and it must be important, because you sound like you know what youre saying. She would boot me a lot., Ardern began her speech that day by casting back a year, when she had asked all of you to hold all of us, and myself, to account. We will remember the tears of our nation, and the new resolve we have formed. [Applause] Thank you very much. He took our minister for ethnic communities with him, and made a powerful statement. Last week I went half a day with my shirt inside out., For Ardern, Neve helps keep things in perspective. and served as president of the International Union of Socialist Youth. But she says she enjoys this part of the job: I dont get exasperated or frustrated by it. Really? No, she said. No friend of free speech, she had little regard for public opinion and no respect for those with a contrary . Today, in the most appalling circumstances imaginable, she has the worlds ear. She may have been referring to Ardern speaking at the International Union of Socialist Youth's World Council annual meeting in 2009, where she used the term "comrade" several times - a term used . IUSY is a massive organisiation and holds consultative status with the United Nations. E rau rangatira m, e ng reo, e ng mana. Half a lifetime and seven weeks ago, I watched Ardern as she sat on the porch of Te Whare Rnanga, the Maori meeting house at Waitangi. Humanity. I have been asking Ardern about her immediate response to the attack, which from the outset put a clear emphasis on inclusivity and solidarity. Im only in government because two parties decided to work with us., Ardern alighted on the benefits of New Zealands system when I asked for her take on Brexit. The budget was so toxically unpopular that the National Party just barely clung on to a majority, thanks only to the distortions of New Zealands electoral system, and soon removed Richardson from her position, reversing some emphasis on some of her budgets provisions. 1:30 PM 'I don't have enough in the tank,' complained 42-year-old Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand. By then, I had interviewed Ardern twice already: after a breakfast meeting at an Auckland hotel, and a few days earlier at Waitangi, on the northern tip of the North Island. So I actually think that, in New Zealand, we do things our own way.. Appointed as New Zealand's Prime Minister in 2017, Jacinda Ardern has been described as an iron fist in a velvet glove. I am here to stand alongside you We feel grief, we feel injustice, and we feel anger. She said it wearing a headscarf, an expression of solidarity that sprinted around the world. I never met him while I worked for him. She doesnt need to, she suggests. Jacinda Ardern following a gathering for congregational Friday prayers and two minutes of silence for victims of the twin mosque massacre, in Christchurch on March 22, 2019. More than that, the countrys public debt is low, as are interest rates and, therefore, the costs of servicing it. In other words, Richardson and her allies aimed not just to tinker with select programs but to transform hearts, minds, and what was politically acceptable. Sometimes a story is best told alongside a beautiful picture, Here's a small selection of some of our favourite 2020 picture books from local creators. We may have left flowers, performed the haka, sung songs or simply embraced. Violence, and extremism in all its forms, is not welcome here. We will remember the first responders who gave so much of themselves to save others. It does feel as if the passage of time has extended. When I ask her which day last week a particular foreign dignitary spoke to her, she says, Times a bit of a blur for me, with a sardonic laugh. Thenprime minister Jim Bolger aimed to arrest New Zealands drift from work to welfare, end what he believed was permanent dependency on the state, and achieve a permanent and substantial reduction in the financial and human cost of welfarism.. The other is that shes actually pretty smart. In the days that have followed the terrorist attack on the 15th of March, we have often found ourselves without words. And it took aim at New Zealands old-age pension system, raising the retirement age from sixty to sixty-five and freezing payments for two years. And so I see that there was a weight of expectation there. I said what I needed to say, she says, pausing and taking a slow, diplomatic breath of air, her hands clasped around her knees. I am a pragmatic idealist, she told me. The elements of that surprised me, says Ardern today. Were trying to do it ourselves and with our family, said Ardern. But she is done with that kind of question. There was a real sense of hope at the time Blair was elected, she continued, because people were ready for things to be done differently. (The tides of remembrance flow over Christchurch today.). In light of Labour's leadership crisis, we take a look back at. Given we are facing what is likely to be many years of economic turmoil and hardship, the political ideology of our Government needs to be laid bare so we can gain insights into what a post-Covid-19 New Zealand economy might look like. But we can be the nation that discovers the cure., After the service I meet Tofazzal Alam, a Bangladesh-born New Zealander who was in the Linwood mosque when it was attacked. It was shortly after 11am and the speeches, from local elders, from politicians, echoed back and forth across the lawn. But look closer and, encouraging though it may be, the reality of Labours budget falls short of the most effusive praise. A fight was brewing over the possible introduction of a capital gains tax. Dozens of buses are parked sideways around the perimeter, forming makeshift ramparts. However, she just couldnt stop her desire to help others and ended up working at a New York soup kitchen, serving food to the poor and homeless people of the city. She wooed the world with talk of kindness and compassion, while at home ruling like a dictator. To the global community who have joined us today, who reached out to embrace New Zealand, and our Muslim community, to all of those who have gathered here today, we say thank you. It was naturally what you would do. We have more to do, she said, words she would repeat throughout the day, but I am an optimist. The information was patchy and it was very difficult to decipher exactly what had happened, she recalls. I just know we have a lot of work to do to make that universal.. Ardern became a list MP in 2008, a position she held for almost ten years until her election to the Mount Albert electorate in the . 'For me, it's time,' she added, during her surprise resignation speech this morning. When I had the all-clear to go down on Saturday, I asked a friend if they had something for me to borrow. ), (My greetings to the whole of Ngi Tahu.). Thats it. Jacinda Ardern is one of New Zealand's young politicians, Sarah Hall sits down with her to find out just what her aspirations are. A responsibility to be the place that we wish to be. If you value what we do and believe in the importance of independent and freely accessible journalism tautoko mai,donate today. The news was announced via Instagram: Ardern, who still runs her own social media accounts, posted a photograph of fish hooks two regular sized, one tiny prompting copious media analysis. He has forgiven the man who did it. Also of note, rumour also has it that Jacinda may be running as a candidate for the Labour Party. For example, is a 20 per centgap of "inequality"acceptable? She is sharp mentally. I suppose that is exactly what Ardern and her comrades mean because they further stated: Todays dominating economical system of Western capitalism has contributed to the unequal distribution of wealth worldwide.. You just do what feels right.. There is evidence of her having said comrade. Shes changing the game. Shes not just leading a country, gushed Facebooks Sheryl Sandberg last year. But for the time being they feel like the concerns of another time, another galaxy. After visiting the USA, Jacinda travelled to England where she worked for British Prime Minister Tony Blair before being chosen as the President of the International Union of Socialist Youth. Most controversially, when it came to the superannuation surcharge a claw-back tax on high-earner pensioners that dented the programs universality the budget both raised the rate and expanded the number of people who had to pay it. It made similar cuts and restructuring to the university system, moving it further along in its transformation from a public good to a private service. The Herald reports:. New Zealand's third female PM, and at 37 our youngest leader since Edward Stafford in 1856, Jacinda Ardern had the most meteoric rise to power of any New Zealand PM - three months prior to being sworn in, . But we can strive to be true to the words embedded in our national anthem, .css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}Men of every creed and race,Gather here before Thy face,Asking Thee to bless this placeGod defend our free land, From dissension, envy, hateAnd corruption, guard our stateMake our country good and greatGod defend New Zealand, Christchurch memorial: standing ovation for Ardern at New Zealand service, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Jacinda Ardern's full Christchurch speech: 'Let us be the nation we believe ourselves to be' video, Jacinda Ardern given standing ovation at New Zealand service. She resigned as prime minister in January 2023. (2) a profit-and-loss system of accounting. The prime minister was deep in conversation with her press secretary when she arrived for the formal part of our interview at Waitangi in February. Pressure was mounting over a failure to meet targets on a flagship house-building scheme. Bring it on. Im a socialist! piped up Tukituki MP Anna Lorck at one point. But, no, I didnt think about particular words. Those interviews took place in early February, and I followed the prime minister as she commemorated the 1840 signing of New Zealands founding treaty, between the British Crown and the Mori chiefs. But even when we had no words, we still heard yours, and they have left us humbled and they have left us united. Not so much, Ardern says. These stories, they now form part of our collective memories. From the thousands at vigils to the 95 year old man who took four buses to attend a rally because he couldnt sleep from the sadness of seeing the hurt and suffering of others. Already on our list? Gun law reforms, intended to ban all semi-automatic firearms, were expedited, with cross-party support. We each hold the power, in our words and in our actions, in our daily acts of kindness, she says. And, lets be honest, in the lead up, too., Ardern sips from a mug of tea though she confesses that, years after quitting, shes also drinking coffee again. I didnt mean it that way. After completing a communications degree, she worked for a short stint in the Beehive of the last Labour prime minister, Helen Clark, who recalls noticing Arderns promise when she was on a team drafting answers for parliamentary questions. They were words spoken by a community who, in the face of hate and violence, had every right to express anger but instead opened their doors for all of us to grieve with them. But what I do know is Ardern and her comrades provided the above answers in 2009and now she is leading us into the economic recovery of post-Covid-19. The government very cannily framed its budget as a reversal of 1991s Mother of all Budgets, one that would right the wrongs put in place by its author, the National Partys thenfinance minister Ruth Richardson, who designed maybe the most extreme case of welfare state retrenchment in the Western world. 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It is just 10 days since a terrorist attack in Christchurch took the lives of 50 people at prayer. 2. Her partner is Clarke Gayfo Jacinda Ardern's graceful departure is the personification of modern democratic ideals Van Badham The New Zealand prime minister's bold and resolute leadership neutralised hoary stereotypes. To understand the idealogical beliefs of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern we can look back to her time as president of the International Union of Socialist Youth, writes Steve Elers. Maybe with your sincerity, not your smile, suggested the photographer. We never have been. Terrible bone structure. Now, the New Zealand Labour Party is getting in on the act, too. Instead, Ardern and her comrades stated: Redistribution will lead to more financial stability and justice. It turned out the strict gun law Ardern championed failed to curb gun crimes. Sometimes, what youre promoting are things like wellbeing, these ambitious but intangible things. She doesnt want to lower the bar, to be someone who only has regard to political measures of success and says, Well, Im only going to set these ambitions, and talk in this way, because I dont want to be judged harshly for not having achieved them., When Ardern was made leader of the Labour party in 2017, she and Gayford were struggling to start a family. That 1991 document had aimed to complete the neoliberal revolution started by Labour itself in the mid-1980s. Team play is more important than ever in politics. Just a few months later it was revealed that the prime minister was pregnant. But I said what I needed to say., I try again. And its good to see them, albeit slowly, adopting the commonsense point that putting money in the pockets of the least well-off is actually good for the economy. Those interviews took place in early February, and I followed the prime minister as she commemorated the 1840 signing of New Zealands founding treaty, between the British Crown and the Mori chiefs. I was in a hotel room. It had just gone 2pm, and a wall of the meeting room was lit in horizontal lines, stencilled through Venetian blinds. The 50 names of the dead are read aloud, the only other sound the whirring of a police helicopter in the distance. Nationalism, the new issue of Jacobin is out now. Aged 27, and hailing from Morrinsville, Ms Ardern is just the second female IUSY president in 101 years. Tn koutou katoa. Now, whether you agree with her political philosophy is where the difference lies. (Later in the day I contact Gayford, host of a television fishing show and father of the couples nine-month-old daughter, Neve, asking for his official position on the prime minister having returned to coffee. But the answer to them lies in a simple concept that is not bound by domestic borders, that isnt based on ethnicity, power base or even forms of governance. CPAG estimates that families on welfare would need an extra $100$230 a week to stay above poverty, and that the Treasurys own forecasts only see child poverty dropping a mere 1.4 points to 17 percent by 2023, leaving at least 180,000 kids in poverty. As President, Jacinda got to travel the world even more with meetings in China, Lebanon and Jordan, to name a few. Very little of what I have done has been deliberate. Among the speakers this morning is 13-year-old Salma, who stands at the microphone and says, simply, of her father, Ashraf, who was killed: He was a really nice man. Farid Ahmeds wife, Husna, was killed at Al Noor Mosque, too. Sometimes, what youre promoting isnt tangible. If you could see the amount of reading that is required in that role. But the pandemic was really the defining moment for Ardern and revealed that she is not the compassionate democracy defender she wanted us to believe. But personally, Id prefer a lineup of self-described liberals governing like socialists, rather than a group of proud socialists governing like neoliberals. It felt very deliberate: was it? But I am pragmatic about how much time that sometimes takes. The optimism tends to win out. Ill show you something, says Jacinda Ardern. The very mention prompted a grimace: There are very few international political experiences quite like Brexit. But she wouldnt volunteer any advice for Theresa May, who at the time had narrowly survived a no-confidence motion. Bernie Sanderss two presidential campaigns sparked a series of elections of democratic socialists at every level of US government. It looks like a pout every time.. But for now, we will remember those who have left this place. E papaki t ana ng tai o maumahara ki runga o tautahi. Needless to say, all this is welcome news in a country where poverty is not only shockingly high but has stayed frustratingly static, even worsening over the course of the pandemic. I am here today to bring with me the grief of all New Zealand, she said. We are sitting on sofas in her office on the ninth floor of the Beehive, the circular building that houses the New Zealand government in Wellington. Jacinda swapped her after school job at the local fish and chip shop to work for New Zealands Labour Party in the 1999 General Election. Simple words, spoken by the bereaved and everyone I met who has been affected by this attack. When she was made leader of the Labour party, with weeks to go before the 2017 election, the campaign was built around a self-described relentlessly positive outlook. We know we need to act, she had told them. Succinctly, steelily, the prime minister framed what had happened in her own terms. Appointed as New Zealand's Prime Minister in 2017, Jacinda Ardern has been described as an iron fist in a velvet glove. That doesnt necessarily apply to her. She was raised a Mormon, but quit the church in her early 20s, principally because of its stance on homosexuality. The failure of socialism can be traced to its neglect of these three . You think of Tony Blairs period, now, and what do people talk about? Speaking at a Maori ceremony at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds. Incoming prime minister Jacinda Ardern says capitalism has been a "blatant failure" in New Zealand when measured by child poverty.. Ardern is the former head of the International Union of Socialist Youth so it is no surprise that our new Prime Minister thinks capitalism is a blatant failure. It just wasnt something she thought about, she said, hardly at all. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has had an impressive career since she was elected as leader in 2017 and was recently named #2 in Fortunes list of Worlds Greatest Leaders in 2019. And then, within 15 minutes, I can be back in the hotel room having Neve spit pumpkin on my shoe. For a school project, Jacinda interviewed former Member of Parliament Marilyn Waring and was very impressed by how friendly and helpful Ms Waring was. There is very little time to sit and think in those terms. A member of the Labour Party, she has been the member of Parliament (MP) for Mount Albert since 2017.. Born in Hamilton, Ardern grew up in Morrinsville . Following the Christchurch attacks, Ardern was asked at a press conference if she agreed with Trumps downplaying of the rise of white supremacy. Labour had, after all, just come off a stunning landslide election win that gave it a single-handed outright majority, a first since the countrys 1996 electoral reforms. We have consensus really built into our system. Because we are not immune to the viruses of hate, of fear, of other. Including some rightwing radio hosts from the United States just so you know that Im being fair and balanced. Jeremy Corbyns leadership led to a surge in left-wing membership in the UK Labour Party and ongoing wins by the partys socialists in local governments all over the country. Arderns Labour-led coalition government was under constant scrutiny: could she achieve the transformational reform shed promised, when every change in the law meant scratching the backs of her coalition partners? In 2007 Ardern was elected president of the International Union of Socialist Youth. These prosaic-seeming challenges will resurface. Theres so many of us great socialists on this side of the House, said Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb. All this wasnt about the nuts and bolts of practical policy. And Im very proud to say to the good people of the Wairarapa that they elected a proud socialist as their MP.. Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern (born July 26, 1980), also known as Aunty Cindy or simply Cindy, or Jabcinda is the far-left socialist globalist agnostic former Prime Minister and dictator of New Zealand.She served as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party from 2017 to 2023, and is the second elected and third overall female Prime Minister of New Zealand after Helen Clark and the second . They were stories of bravery. Richardson likewise complained about the excessive size of government spending, and she saw the cuts as a statement about the types of lives people should be encouraged to lead, she would later say: ones of independence and self-reliance. The fact that welfare rolls were only as full as they were because of the economic misery created by the preceding round of neoliberal reforms didnt seem to matter. Of course she needed to project New Zealands voice, but her focus was on domestic priorities. Towards the end of her Waitangi speech, she had quoted Michael Savage, the venerated Labour statesman who led the party to government for the first time in 1935: We dont claim perfection, but what we do claim is a considerable advance on the past. Its a line that Ardern had rolled out in at least three big recent speeches, and felt, in part, like a plea to dial down the Jacindamania a call to pragmatism. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators . Optimism is baked into Arderns character. 3. The exact number of years Jacinda Ardern was a member of the radical hard left group the International Union of Socialist Youth is unknown, but given she turned 20 in 2001, its likely to be around 10 years. Simple, she says, nodding her head. Accordingly, to understand Arderns political ideology it is important to revisit 2008, when she entered Parliament as a Labour list-MP. Not quite. His views are his own and do not represent Massey University. I stand here as a very proud member of the great socialist democratic Labour Party, proclaimed New Lynn MP Deborah Russell. Act of exraordnry violence. Now Im finding out what every parent finds out: its not about whats possible or whats not, its about making it work. This framing has, in turn, largely been rebroadcast by the press, which has painted a picture of a budget dyed the deepest red.. The word progressive is a dirty word, to be blunt, in my philosophy. Her partner, Clarke Gayford, she smiles, is not impressed. To that end, they successfully shrunk the size of the state and the scope of its involvement in the economy, and they looked to make putting debt and surpluses ahead of people a permanent feature of politics. She highlighted recent reforms to help disadvantaged Mori, to lift children out of poverty, most notably in the form of a families package that boosted assistance to low- and middle-income families. Previously the youngest Prime Minister, it appears she has run out of energy right when public opinion is turning on her beloved Labour Party. Progressives are leftists. The Guardians photographer asked Ardern to stand in the stripes, a film-noirish sort of pose. The answer lies in our humanity. Branko Marcetic is a Jacobin staff writer and the author of Yesterday's Man: The Case Against Joe Biden.