Since becoming New Zealand’s 40th prime minister just over five years and three months ago, Jacinda Ardern has steered the country through some of the most extraordinary crises it’s ever seen. We look at key moments in her political career.
November 8, 2008: Enters Parliament aged 28 as a Labour List MP – then the youngest in Parliament – having just returned from London, where she’d worked for British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Before that, Ardern had also worked as an adviser for the Labour Government in the offices of Phil Goff and Helen Clark.
February 25, 2017: Wins a landslide by-election victory to become Mt Albert’s MP – formerly leader David Shearer’s seat - after three terms as a list MP and two unsuccessful runs for the Auckland Central electorate.
March 7, 2017: Unanimously elected as deputy leader of Labour Party, replacing the outgoing Annette King. Then-Labour leader Andrew Little tells media he’s not concerned that Ardern’s popularity would see her overtake him as preferred PM. “There’s only one leader of the party; that’s me.”
August 1, 2017: Steps up as Leader of the Opposition – and the second female Labour leader - seven weeks before the general election, after Little’s resignation amid historically low polling for the party. At her first press conference as leader, Ardern promises a campaign of “relentless positivity”. By late August, Colmar Brunton polling shows Labour has risen to 43 per cent, having been 24 per cent under Little’s leadership.
September 23, 2017: Labour wins 36.8 per cent of the vote, compared with National’s 44.4 per cent, and gains 14 seats. After a whirlwind round of talks with New Zealand First and the Greens, Winston Peters announces a coalition with Labour on October 19. Ardern becomes the country’s third and youngest female prime minister seven days later, proclaiming her government would be “focused, empathetic and strong”.
December 14, 2017: Announces Labour’s cornerstone Families Package as part of its 100-day plan. Beginning in July 2018, the package gradually increases paid parental leave to 26 weeks and introduces a $60 per-week universal BestStart Payment for low and middle-income families with young children.
January 19, 2018: In a shock announcement, Ardern reveals she and partner Clarke Gayford are expecting a child, with Peters to serve as acting prime minister for six weeks after she gives birth. The news draws headlines and adulation from around the world. Neve Te Aroha Ardern Gayford is born on June 21, 2018, making Ardern the second world leader to give birth while in office. On September 18, she becomes the first world leader to bring their baby to the UN General Assembly in New York.
April 12, 2018: Announces a dramatic ban on future offshore oil exploration, saying the transition to a zero-carbon economy “must start somewhere”. Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges calls the ban “a wrecking ball” for regional New Zealand.
April 20, 2018: Attends a state banquet hosted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace garbed in a korowai provided by London-based Maori group Ngati Ranana. The Guardian noted that while Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had been ridiculed for wearing indigenous clothing, Ardern made it look right. Ardern later led New Zealand’s mourning of the Queen after her death in September 2022, saying of the late monarch: “I learned much from observing her”.
August 24, 2018: Sacks Broadcasting Minister Clare Curran from Cabinet for not disclosing a meeting with entrepreneur Derek Handley set up using her personal email account, having already been warned over a similar meeting with former RNZ boss Carol Hirschfeld. Ardern draws criticism from the Opposition for not stripping Curran of her portfolio, and later accepts Curran’s resignation.
December 18, 2018: Labour announces a referendum on legalising recreational cannabis, which fails to win enough support when held with the 2020 election. Ardern, who admitted to past cannabis use during a televised election debate, had avoided committing to a non-binding agreement.
March 15, 2019: Learns of the Christchurch mosque attacks – leaving 51 people dead and 49 injured – while on a scheduled visit to New Plymouth. In a hastily called media conference, Ardern calls the terror attack “one of New Zealand’s darkest days”. Of the victims, Ardern says: “They have chosen to make New Zealand their home, and it is their home. They are us.” An image of Ardern, wearing a hijab while embracing victims’ family members, is later beamed onto the world’s tallest building, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa. The shooting leads to a ban on semiautomatic weapons and assault rifles and the “Christchurch Call” to tackle online extremism. Ardern holds a summit with French leader Emmanuel Macron in Paris in May 2019.
April 19, 2019: Makes the controversial call to rule out a capital gains tax as long as she’s prime minister. Ardern justifies her decision by saying she doesn’t believe New Zealand supports it. Since then, the period for which capital gain on rental properties sold is taxed has increased from five to ten years since purchase.
May 3, 2019: Ardern confirms her engagement to Gayford, who proposed over Easter Weekend at Mahia, near Gayford’s home town of Gisborne. Later, the couple are forced to scrap plans for a summer 2022 wedding over gathering limits imposed to combat the Omicron wave.
May 29, 2019: Announces with Finance Minister Grant Robertson Labour’s first Wellbeing Budget, committing almost $2 billion towards mental health funding and another billion on child wellbeing, including moves to increase benefits.
September 4, 2019: Ardern’s Government embarrassingly backflips on one of its signature election policies of 2017 – building 100,000 affordable new homes within a decade – admitting it was overly ambitious.
September 11, 2019: Confirms the resignation of Labour Party president Nigel Haworth over challenging him over his handling of serious allegations against a Labour staffer. The complaints were about the behaviour of a Labour staffer, including allegations of sexual assault, bullying and intimidation, but Haworth insisted that the party was not told about claims of sexual assault. Ardern said the party’s handling had caused further harm and additional distress to the complainants.
November 7, 2019: The Government’s landmark Zero Carbon Bill passes into legislation, committing New Zealand to cut CO2 emissions to zero by 2050, and setting five-yearly carbon budgets Ardern tells MPs it puts the country “on the right side of history”.
December 9, 2019: Faces her second national crisis as leader with the eruption of Whakaari/White Island, which killed 22 people and injured 25. “The scale of this tragedy is devastating,” she tells media after travelling to Whakatāne and meeting emergency personnel.
February 21, 2020: Ardern appears on the cover of Time magazine, which had featured her in its Time 100 lists for 2018 and 2019. She uses the publicity to discuss the Christchurch Call and the danger of far-right extremism.
March 23, 2020: After pleas from officials and experts amid the rising risk of Covid-19 over-running New Zealand, Ardern announces an unprecedented month-long lockdown. She tells a press conference: “I say to all New Zealanders: the government will do all it can to protect you. Now I’m asking you to do everything you can to protect all of us. Kiwis – go home.” Daily 1pm updates, alongside deputy-director of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield, become a national fixture, with Ardern’s messaging described by one commentator as a “masterclass in crisis communication”. Ardern wins further global praise when New Zealand achieves elimination several months later.
October 17, 2020: The Government’s pandemic response helps Labour to a landslide election victory, winning an overall majority of 65 seats and 50 per cent of the nationwide party vote. Ardern’s party went to the election with a promise to make Matariki a public holiday from 2022, along with reintroducing the top 39 per cent tax bracket for income above $180,000.
August 17, 2021: Ardern announces a second national lockdown after the Delta variant is confirmed to have spread in New Zealand. “One of the worst things about Covid-19 is the absolute uncertainty it creates, but we know this strategy works, and we know life will get easier,” Ardern tells media. “We just need to keep going.” The Delta outbreak – the arrival of Omicron the following summer – ultimately put paid to New Zealand’s elimination strategy, and with it, unprecedented and controversial measures like vaccine passes. By the time the virus begun spreading nationwide, the largest vaccine roll-out in New Zealand’s history had immunised 90 per cent of eligible Kiwis.
March 2, 2022: Addresses media after a month-long occupation of Parliament grounds by anti-vaccination protesters results in a violent eviction by police. Ardern says: “Our country will not be defined by the dismantling of an occupation. In fact, when we look back on this period in our history, I hope we remember one thing. Thousands more lives were saved in the past two years by your actions as New Zealanders than were on that front lawn of Parliament today.”
May 27, 2022: Delivers the highly prestigious Harvard Commencement address at Harvard University, where she receives an honorary degree and again calls out social media misinformation as a threat to democracy. “The time has come for social media companies and other online providers to recognise their power and to act on it,” she tells the ceremony, before receiving a standing ovation.
August 16, 2022: Announces rogue Labour MP Gaurav Sharma has been suspended from caucus effective immediately, over what she calls “repeated breaches of trust”. Sharma proved a headache for Ardern and Labour after making a string of public accusations that he was “bullied” and the party had refused to investigate his side of the story over staff issues.
December 5, 2022: Amid a year of economic woes and worries – namely inflation and high living costs - a 1News-Kantar poll shows support for Ardern and Labour and sunk to its lowest point since 2017. While Ardern’s approval rating falls slightly to 29 per cent, National party leader Christopher Luxon’s rises to 23 per cent.
December 14, 2022: Is caught referring to Act leader David Seymour as an “arrogant prick” during a sitting of Parliament. The rare public gaffe would’ve gone unnoticed had it not been picked up by microphones and heard on Parliament TV. She and Seymour later sign a framed Hansard transcript that sells at auction for $100,100, with proceeds given to charity.
January 19, 2023: Announces she’ll stand down on February 7, 2023. In an emotional address, she says she’d hoped to find the energy and heart to continue in the role over summer, “but I have not been able to do that”.
“This has been the most fulfilling five and a half years of my life.”
Julia DeLuney is on trial for allegedly killing her mother, Helen Gregory, 79, in 2024.