In her final speech to New Zealand’s Parliament on Wednesday, April 5, 2023, Jacinda Ardern described in emotional terms how she had navigated a pandemic and a mass-shooting during her tumultuous five-year tenure as Prime Minister.
A global icon of the left and an inspiration to women around the world, Ardern in January stepped down as Prime Minister, saying, “I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It is that simple.”
However, Ardern stayed on as a lawmaker until April to avoid triggering a special election ahead of the nation’s general elections in October.
The former Prime Minister of New Zealand, wearing a traditional Māori cloak called a korowai, told humorous anecdotes like how a European leader so admired the striking hair of her chief-of-staff, which she joked had helped secure a free-trade deal, and how her mother once sent her a uplifting, if somewhat grandiose, message; “Remember, even Jesus had people who didn’t like him.”
On a more serious note, Ardern urged lawmakers to take the politics out of climate change.
“There will always be policy differences But beneath that, we have what we need to make the progress we must.”
Jacinda Ardern
Ardern also described how she and fiancé, Clarke Gayford thought they could not have children after a failed round of IVF. “Rather than process that, I campaigned to become Prime Minister,” she joked.
“A rather good distraction as far as they go. Imagine my surprise when a couple of months later, I discovered I was pregnant,” she added.
Ardern became just the second elected world leader to give birth while holding office after she and Gayford had daughter Neve in 2018.
When Ardern finished speaking after about 35 minutes, she was greeted with a standing ovation by lawmakers from across the political spectrum and rousing renditions of several Indigenous Māori songs.
Ardern Entered Politics Based On Her Convictions
Ardern disclosed that she entered politics based on her convictions but got used to her tenure being defined by a different list.
“A domestic terror attack, a volcanic eruption, a pandemic. A series of events where I found myself in people’s lives during their most grief-stricken or traumatic moments. Their stories and faces remain etched in my mind, and likely will forever.”
Jacinda Ardern
Ardern described how she had approached the COVID-19 pandemic on a scientific basis and how New Zealand had fared best among developed nations when measuring excess mortality. She said that she once tried to argue with a lone protestor about a false conspiracy theory.
“But after many of these same experiences, and seeing the rage that often sat behind these conspiracies, I had to accept I was wrong. I could not single-handedly pull someone out of a rabbit hole.”
Jacinda Ardern
Ardern said she worried that during the pandemic, the nation had lost a sense of security, and the ability to engage in robust debate in a respectful way.
She also described how she never thought she was meant to have the role of Prime Minister, and how it came about through a surprising chain of events.
While she could not control how her tenure would be defined by others, Ardern said, she hoped it had demonstrated something else.
“That you can be anxious, sensitive, kind and wear your heart on your sleeve. You can be a mother, or not, you can be an ex-Mormon, or not, you can be a nerd, a crier, a hugger, you can be all of these things, and not only can you be here, you can lead, just like me.”
Jacinda Ardern
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