Editorial: PM's fashion pages promote us well

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at the Auckland Theatre Awards this week.

Opinion

Some might sniff at the news our new Prime Minister is doing a photo shoot this weekend for the March issue of Vogue, just as some did when John Key grabbed an opportunity to promote New Zealand on the Letterman Show some years ago. They were wrong then and they are wrong now.

Even those who did not vote for Jacinda Ardern can agree she presents a fine image of this country to the world. Appearances are not all important but they help. Most obviously they can help promote New Zealand industry as Key tried to do for tourism and Ardern could do for our garment designers.

An international fashion magazine is bound to take an interest in her wardrobe, which contains Kate Sylvester, Juliette Hogan, Ingrid Starnes, Tanya Carlson and Harman Grubisa.

But most foreign readers will be more fascinated by her youth. A 37-year-old Prime Minister is a novelty at any time. She is the youngest woman leader of any country in the world today and she looks like it. More than perhaps any woman Prime Minister the world has seen, she is an inspiration to young women.

She knows their generation and can speak its language. Classes from girls' schools come to Parliament and watch her with visible admiration from the public gallery. They applaud her though it is against House rules.

When she speaks at co-ed schools, she makes a point of encouraging questions from the girls. She knows she is a role model for what a young woman can do and she embraces that role intelligently. Hopefully, she can do the same internationally.

But she is a Prime Minister, which means she has to make decisions that cannot please everyone. Politics is about resolving real problems in ways that are practical as well as principled, and representing New Zealand means preserving important relationships as well as promoting the values we hold. She discovered how difficult that could be at her first international gathering last month when she criticised Australia.

She has had to learn fast since she stepped into her party's leadership so suddenly in August. She brightened its campaign and lifted it into contention when the votes were counted. Now she leads a three-party coalition she will need to hold together.

None of this will interest Vogue as much as her style and smile. She presents a fresh, vigorous, youthful and modern image of New Zealand. Be proud.