NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Matariki, child poverty and being called 'Cindy'

Felix Desmarais
By Felix Desmarais
Local Democracy Reporter ·Rotorua Daily Post·
7 Sep, 2020 06:30 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

The Prime Minister spoke to Felix Desmarais about key issues.

It's a dinky little room, up the back and above the main meeting room at Tamaki Māori Village.

"Hello, Prime Minister."

It's a bit strange not to shake the PM's hand when you meet her, but this is 2020.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was in town on Monday to announce that if re-elected to Government, Labour would make Matariki a public holiday.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

So why this, why now, and why in Rotorua?

Ardern says it's a public holiday that's time has come.

"It's unique to New Zealand, it's representative of the Māori new year, and of course over recent years there have been greater and greater calls for us to embed that in our calendar."

She says starting it in 2022 balances the cost to businesses, and the boost it may give the tourism sector.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Ardern acknowledges there have also been calls to make Parihaka - November 5 - a commemorative holiday.

She says teaching New Zealand history in schools has been a way to respond to those calls.

"For Parihaka, we've made investment through the Provincial Growth Fund to make sure we are regionally showcasing and acknowledging the history of that part of the region and also its role within New Zealand history."

She says in each area, Labour has been working to lift the profile of "those different parts of our history and our culture, and hopefully getting the balance right between all of them".

Discover more

New Zealand

'Its time has come': Labour promises to make Matariki a public holiday

07 Sep 01:46 AM
Kahu

Support, criticism, confusion around Matariki as public holiday

07 Sep 10:28 PM

"Matariki is something that does bring together different regions, different areas across the country.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Photo / Andrew Warner
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Photo / Andrew Warner

"It is a chance for us, in the middle of winter, to have a moment of celebration."

She says Matariki has the power to bring the country together and acknowledge "who we are".

"When you think of our public holiday landscape at the moment, there's not many, if any, that really do that other than the acknowledgement of Waitangi Day."

We pivot to child poverty - a topic Ardern has said before is one of her biggest issues - and an issue in Rotorua.

She lists what was achieved in the first 100 days of Government - "that families package which introduced a new universal payment for children in the first year of their life… we also extended paid parental leave... we increased paid parental leave as a payment… we also increased the family tax credit, we have indexed benefits to wages, we have increased general benefit rates by $25 a week and we introduced the winter energy payment".

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Taken as a whole, those are the most significant reforms for those on low and middle incomes that New Zealand has had for decades and it will, and is making a dent in child poverty.

"We've made a good start, we need to do more though."

There was the lunches in schools programme too, which had been extended, she says.

Last week, New Zealand ranked near the bottom of a Unicef league table ranking OECD countries on child wellbeing.

Yesterday Children's Commissioner Judge Andrew Becroft told me the Government had put "more in place than has ever been done for 30 years" to rectify issues of child poverty related to the 1991 "Mother of All Budgets" cut to benefits.

However, he said there was still a call for an increase to benefits in the realm of, broadly speaking, $75-$100 a week, echoing a recommendation by the Welfare Expert Advisory Group.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

In response, Ardern says people often look to "just solely look to benefit increases".

"What often isn't looked at is the cumulative effect for children of the targeted support."

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks exclusively to Local Democracy Reporter Felix Desmarais for the Rotorua Daily Post. Photo / Andrew Warner
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks exclusively to Local Democracy Reporter Felix Desmarais for the Rotorua Daily Post. Photo / Andrew Warner

Ardern laughs when I bring up a recent opinion piece that called for people to stop calling her "Cindy" because it is sexist and belittling.

I sense she doesn't like the name. She told The New York Times in 2018 she hated it.

But she's diplomatic.

"I've had a range of nicknames over my time in politics and none of them particularly bother me.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"When people put 'auntie' in the front I always find it a term of endearment."

So it's not sexist?

"I've never given it much thought. I've had nicknames my whole life. Jacinda is just one of those names that's easy to turn into a nickname.

"There's some [nicknames] I prefer over others though."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from New Zealand

Premium
New Zealand|crime

200 dodgy visas granted for businesses linked to Vietnamese cannabis houses

05 Jul 05:00 PM
Premium
Letters to the Editor

Letters: Where have our statesman gone?

05 Jul 05:00 PM
Premium
Opinion

Shane Te Pou: Springsteen is a pulse of musical power for the working class

05 Jul 05:00 PM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from New Zealand

Premium
200 dodgy visas granted for businesses linked to Vietnamese cannabis houses

200 dodgy visas granted for businesses linked to Vietnamese cannabis houses

05 Jul 05:00 PM

Investigation revealed how Vietnamese crime groups exploited hundreds of migrant workers.

Premium
Letters: Where have our statesman gone?

Letters: Where have our statesman gone?

05 Jul 05:00 PM
Premium
Shane Te Pou: Springsteen is a pulse of musical power for the working class

Shane Te Pou: Springsteen is a pulse of musical power for the working class

05 Jul 05:00 PM
Premium
Editorial: Kiwis support the business battler, not the shoplifter

Editorial: Kiwis support the business battler, not the shoplifter

05 Jul 05:00 PM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP