DAME JACINDA KATE LAURELL ARDERN

Dame Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern
She is born 26 July 1980) is a New Zealand former politician who served as the 40th prime minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labour Party from 2017 to 2023. A member of the Labour Party, she was a member of Parliament (MP) as a list MP from 2008 to 2017, and for Mount Albert from 2017 to 2023.Born in Hamilton, Ardern grew up in Morrinsville and Murupara. She joined the Labour Party at the age of 17. After graduating from the University of Waikato in 2001, Ardern worked as a researcher in the office of Prime Minister Helen Clark. She later worked in London as an adviser in the Cabinet Office during Tony Blair’s premiership. In 2008, Ardern was elected president of the International Union of Socialist Youth. Ardern was first elected as an MP in the 2008 general election, when Labour lost power after nine years. She was later elected to represent the Mount Albert electorate in a by-election on 25 February 2017.

Ardern was unanimously elected as deputy leader of the Labour Party on 1 March 2017, after the resignation of Annette King. Exactly five months later, with an election due, Labour’s leader Andrew Little resigned after a historically low opinion polling result for the party, with Ardern elected unopposed as leader in his place.Labour’s support increased rapidly after Ardern became leader, and she led her party to gain 14 seats at the 2017 general election on 23 September, winning 46 seats to the National Party’s 56.New Zealand has awarded Jacinda Ardern one of the country’s highest honours, making the former prime minister a dame for her service to the country during the Covid-19 pandemic and Christchurch terror attacks.

Ardern accepted the honour but said she had felt conflicted about doing so. “I was in two minds about accepting this acknowledgment. So many of the things we went through as a nation over the last five years were about all of us rather than one individual,” she said.

“But I have heard that said by so many Kiwis who I have encouraged to accept an honour over the years. And so for me this is a way to say thank you – to my family, to my colleagues, and to the people who supported me to take on the most challenging and rewarding role of my life.”The former leader’s tenure was marked by a series of national and international crises, and the prime minister, Chris Hipkins, said the recognition was for her leadership during these “periods of intense challenge”. In particular, it recognised her response after a white supremacist gunman killed 50 Muslims at prayer at a mosque in Christchurch, and her pandemic leadership, which saw New Zealand achieve very high rates of vaccination and some of the lowest excess death rates in the world.“Dame Jacinda Ardern is recognised for her service to New Zealand during some of the greatest challenges our country has faced in modern times,” Hipkins said.

“Leading New Zealand’s response to the 2019 terrorist attacks and to the Covid-19 pandemic represented periods of intense challenge for our 40th prime minister, during which time I saw first-hand that her commitment to New Zealand remained absolute.”

Since her surprise resignation in January, Ardern has kept a relatively low public profile. She has accepted a role as special envoy to the prime minister to continue work on responses to online extremism and terrorism; joined the board of Prince William’s Earthshot prize, which awards responses to environmental crises; and accepted fellowships to Harvard University.

The country announced its king’s birthday honours on Monday, a public holiday to recognise King Charles III. Also recognised was Queen Camilla, who was awarded a New Zealand order of merit for her support of the monarch. It is traditional in New Zealand to recognise the monarch’s spouse for their service.

The country gave out 182 honours in total, including three other dames, and three knights. Recipients included Māori leaders, sports coaches, doctors, journalists, arts advocates, business leaders and others.New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said that she will resign from her post next month and will not contest this year’s general elections.

Fighting back tears, Ardern told reporters in the city of Napier on Thursday that February 7 will be her last day in office.

“I am not leaving because it was hard. Had that been the case I probably would have departed two months into the job,” she said.While Labour won re-election two years ago in a landslide of historic proportions, recent polls have put it behind its conservative rivals.

Political commentator Ben Thomas said Ardern’s announcement was a huge surprise as polls still ranked her as the country’s preferred prime minister even though support for her party had fallen from the stratospheric heights seen during the 2020 election.In late October 2017, she became the prime minister of New Zealand, the third female one and the youngest at 37 in 150 years.
First world leader to attend a United Nations assembly with her infant child (September 2018).
Got engaged to her longtime boyfriend Clarke Gayford on April 28, 2019. They have a daughter together, Neve Te Aroha Gayford (b. June 21, 2018).
Second elected world leader in history to have a baby while in office.
She was once turned down for a role in fellow New Zealander Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” films.Coincidentally, she was voted “Most likely to become Prime Minister” in high school.
She is a natural blonde, but prefers to dye her hair dark.
She grew up as a Mormon, but gave up that faith in 2005 because of its opposition to same-sex marriage.The resignation of Jacinda Ardern as the 40th prime minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labour Party was announced on 19 January 2023, at a press conference given by Ardern at the War Memorial Centre in Napier, Hawke’s Bay.Regarded as one of New Zealand’s most important and popular leaders in recent history, Ardern declared in her speech that she “no longer had enough in the tank” to fulfill the office of the premiership (occupational burnout),and that she would not be seeking re-election at the upcoming election (the date of which she announced in the same speech).She also expressed hope that she would spend more time with her family, and that she had left behind a legacy that one “can be kind, but strong” and “your own kind of leader – one that knows when it’s time to go.”
On 1 August 2017, just seven weeks before the 2017 general election, Ardern assumed the position of leader of the Labour Party, and consequently became leader of the Opposition, following the resignation of Andrew Little. Little stood down due to the party’s historically low polling.Ardern was unanimously confirmed in an election to choose a new leader at a caucus meeting the same day.There was speculation among right-wing media columnists in November 2022 that Ardern was about to resign imminently. The idea was mocked by Toby Manhire, editor-at-large of the left-leaning online news site The Spinoff, for being baseless.On 19 January 2023, Ardern gave a speech at a routine press conference in Napier, the location of the annual Labour Party conference. It was there that, in addition to announcing the date of the upcoming election (14 October 2023), that she declared she would not lead Labour into it.I am entering now my sixth year in office. And for each of those years, I have given my absolute all. I believe that leading a country is the most privileged job anyone could ever have, but also one of the more challenging. You cannot, and should not do it unless you have a full tank, plus, a bit in reserve for those unexpected challenges. This summer, I had hoped to find a way to prepare for not just another year, but another term – because that is what this year requires. I have not been able to do that. And so today, I am announcing that I will not be seeking re-election and that my term as prime minister will conclude no later than the 7th of February… I know there will be much discussion in the aftermath of this decision as to what the so called “real” reason was. I can tell you, that what I am sharing today is it. The only interesting angle you will find is that after going on six years of some big challenges, that I am human. Politicians are human. We give all that we can, for as long as we can, and then it’s time. And for me, it’s time.

— Jacinda Ardern, 19 January 2023