Former PM Jacinda Ardern has been under the radar since she resigned - this is what she’s been doing

In January, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced she was resigning and then promptly disappeared until yesterday, when she returned to Parliament for a farewell from her caucus and to deliver her valedictory speech tonight.

In the two months between, there has been precious little sign of her.

Since then, she has not been back into the debating chamber but has been to her Parliament office a few times – PM Chris Hipkins lets her stay in Premier House when she is in the capital since he has not moved in. She remains Mt Albert MP – and dropped to a backbench MP’s salary of $164,000 from her PM’s salary of $471,000.

The Herald asked her office how she had filled her days – and was told she had done a combination of electorate work – especially dealing with the Auckland flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle - and the paperwork that comes with being a recently resigned Prime Minister.

The paperwork, it seems, is quite a consuming task - prime ministerial thoughts and utterances are all archived for posterity – both in document form and through regular interviews with Archives NZ.

In Ardern’s case, there was also a need to archive documents from the nine years before she became PM – her years in Opposition.

Her rise to the leadership and then to PM had been so swift that all her Opposition material was still in boxes that hadn’t been opened since then.

The floods also took up a lot of her time – Grey Lynn in her electorate was fairly hard-hit and Ardern was busy dealing with Auckland Council on behalf of affected homeowners. Then there was her quiet visit to Waipatu Marae in Hastings after Cyclone Gabrielle – she popped in and left before it went on social media.

The cyclone put paid to her plans to visit other regions with which she had a particular connection as a PM and wanted to farewell in person – including Gisborne and Northland.

Ardern’s last outing as PM was to Ratana Pā in January. There had been some consideration given to going to Waitangi as well – a place she had spent several days in each year around Waitangi Day.

However, it was decided that would overshadow Hipkins too much so Ardern had hoped for a quiet, unannounced trip a bit later. It did not go ahead because of the cyclones, but Northland and Gisborne can expect visits at some point after she leaves Parliament.

Ardern has stayed on as an MP until now to avoid a byelection in the Mt Albert electorate – a byelection must be held unless a sitting MP leaves within six months of a general election.

There are good reasons for former prime ministers to stay as low-key as possible after stepping down. The attention that went on her at Ratana Pā had highlighted the main one: she totally overshadowed Hipkins.

A former PM who is constantly in the headlines and media - or doing a farewell tour - makes it hard for their successor to get a good start.

Sir John Key did pretty much the same thing – he resigned as PM in late 2016 but did not leave Parliament as MP for Helensville until April 2017. He spent much of that time overseas.

In Ardern’s case, there was also likely the hope that being out of sight would put her out of mind. Ardern still has the diplomatic protection squad keeping a close eye on her – a result of the threats against her. DPS usually stop following former prime ministers if they decide there is no threat against them – but in Ardern’s case it remains unclear how long that will take.

Ardern has posted only a handful of times on her Instagram account since her resignation – for a long time her most recent post was a photo of herself and Act leader David Seymour, showing their “arrogant little prick” framed Hansard fundraiser last December.

She broke her silence on the morning after the flooding in Auckland, writing “I’m very conscious that it’s been a while since I posted, and there have been a few big things happening. But today the most important thing is everyone’s wellbeing and safety - especially across Auckland after such a severe weather event. So this is a post from the MP for Mt Albert!”

The most recent post was on March 11 when she posted about the Kindness Collective Community Hub in Sandringham, asking people to drop off supplies.

On February 15 she posted that she was checking on businesses in Sandringham after the floods – and two days earlier she had posted a PSA for people to go to the Mt Albert Community Hall for help with flooded properties.

In the immediate aftermath of the Auckland floods, another user also posted that Ardern had checked on her parents – and gone to pick up bananas for them, apologising because they were a bit green.

One thing Ardern has not been doing is media interviews. When Key left, he did a full round of exit interviews – and photo ops packing up his office.

Ardern has taken the opposite approach – selecting only the two that screened last night. One was with John Campbell on 1 News, and the other with Samantha Hayes on Newshub.

For the press gallery reporters who chronicled her reign - through the horror of the Christchurch terror attacks, the early, shocking period of Covid-19, followed her remarkable election campaign and victory in 2020 and then through her tearful resignation announcement in Napier in January - she did not even have a few words in passing to acknowledge the moment on Monday.

The words will be in her valedictory at 5.30pm tonight - and then she will leave.