Tag: PM jacinda

  • ‘It’s time’: Jacinda Ardern unexpectedly resigns

    Jacinda Ardern unexpectedly resigned as the Prime Minister of New Zealand on Thursday after being in office for almost five years.

    Leaving her country and the world stunned, the popular 42-year-old leader announced that she will not contest in the upcoming elections, scheduled to be held in October.

    “I am leaving because with such a privileged role, comes responsibility, the responsibility to know when you are the right person to lead and also when you are not,” she said, adding that she, “no longer has enough in the tank to do it justice”.

    She said, “I am human. We give as much as we can for as long as we can and then it’s time. And for me, it’s time.”

    Arden said told reporters that she would be doing a disservice to her country by continuing.

    The Labour Party will now vote to find her replacement on Sunday.

    Arden became the youngest female head of government in the world in 2017, when she was elected prime minister at just 37 years of age.

    She won international acclaim for her handling of a terror attack on two Muslim mosques and the Covid-19 pandemic, and became only the second world leader after former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to give birth while in office.

  • PM Jacinda Ardern shows us how to respond to a misogynist question

    PM Jacinda Ardern shows us how to respond to a misogynist question

    New Zealand Prime Minister (PM) Jacinda Ardern shuts down a male journalist for asking a misogynist question.

    Arden was hosting Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin at Auckland’s Government House on Wednesday during the first visit by a Premier from the European country to New Zealand.

    However, a male reporter zoomed in on what he seemed to think was the most important thing Ardern, 42, and Marin, 37, have in common.

    He asked, “A lot of people will be wondering: ‘Are you two meeting just because you’re similar in age and have got a lot of common stuff there — when you got into politics and stuff — or can Kiwis actually expect to see more deals between our two countries down the line?”

    Ardern interrupted the question to say that she wondered “whether or not anyone ever asked Barack Obama and John Key if they met because they were of similar age.”

    With a smile on her face, she added: “We, of course, have a higher proportion of men in politics, it’s a reality. Because two women meet, it is not simply because of their gender.”

    She then schooled the reporter on the important trade relations between the countries. “It’s our job to further it, regardless of our gender,” Arden concluded.

    Meanwhile, Marin said: “We are meeting because we are prime ministers, of course … we have a lot of things in common, but also a lot of things where we can do much more together.”

    The question about age and gender drew criticism in local media outlets, where it was described as “not-so-subtle sexism” and “casual sexism”.

    The viral clip rapidly gained the attention of Twitterati who applauded the female leaders.

  • ‘First female Muslim PM, first to give birth in office’: NZ PM Jacinda Ardern praises Benazir Bhutto in Harvard Speech

    ‘First female Muslim PM, first to give birth in office’: NZ PM Jacinda Ardern praises Benazir Bhutto in Harvard Speech

    New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern paid homage to former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in an address at Harvard University.

    “In June 1989, the Prime Minister of Pakistan stood on this spot and delivered the commencement address titled ‘Democratic nations must unite‘. She spoke about her journey, the importance of citizenry, representative government, human rights, and democracy,” said Jacinda while talking about Benazir.

    “I met Benazir Bhutto in Geneva in June of 2007. We both attended a conference that drew together progressive parties from around the world. Just seven months, later she was assassinated.”

    “There will be opinions and differing perspectives written about all of us as political leaders. Two things that history will not contest about Benazir Bhutto: she was the first Muslim female Prime Minister elected in an Islamic country, when a woman in power was a rare thing. She was also the first to give birth in office.”

    “The second and only other leader to have given birth in office almost 30 years later was me,” added the New Zealand prime minister.

    During the address she also revealed that her daughter, Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford, was born on Benazir’s birthday, i.e. June 21.

    Ardern borrowed words from Benazir Bhutto’s1989 Harvard Commencement address, “We must realise that democracy… can be fragile.”

    “I read those words as I sat in my office in Wellington, New Zealand. A world away from Pakistan. And while the reasons that gave rise for her words then were vastly different, they still ring true.”

    “Democracy can be fragile,” said Ardern.

    “This imperfect but precious way that we organise ourselves, that has been created to give equal voice to the weak and to the strong, that is designed to help drive consensus — it is fragile.”

    “For years it feels as though we have assumed that the fragility of democracy was determined by duration. That somehow the strength of your democracy was like a marriage – the longer you’d been in it, the more likely it was to stick.”

    Federal Minister for Climate Change Senator Sherry Rehman shared the video and wrote, “Thank u Prime Minister Ardern.”