{"id":3723,"date":"2023-04-13T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-13T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/natixis.ezine.intercountry.com\/?p=3723"},"modified":"2023-04-11T17:39:41","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T15:39:41","slug":"in-final-speech-ardern-reflects-on-leading-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/natixis.ezine.intercountry.com\/index.php\/2023\/04\/13\/in-final-speech-ardern-reflects-on-leading-new-zealand\/","title":{"rendered":"In final speech, Ardern reflects on leading New Zealand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Read time : 2 mins <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Level : Intermediate<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jacinda Ardern makes her final speech to New Zealand’s Parliament in Wellington, on Wednesday, April 5, 2023, after her five-year tenure as prime minister. A global icon of the left and an inspiration to women around the world, Ardern stepped down<\/span> as prime minister in January, saying \u201cI know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It is that simple.” (Mark Mitchell\/New Zealand Herald via AP)<\/sub><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

By NICK PERRY Associated Press<\/p>\n

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) \u2014 In her final speech to New Zealand’s Parliament on Wednesday, Jacinda Ardern described in emotional terms how she’d navigated a pandemic and a mass-shooting during her tumultuous five-year tenure as prime minister.<\/p>\n

She also told humorous anecdotes like how a European leader so admired the striking hair of Ardern’s chief-of-staff that he fluffed it like a hairdresser \u2014 which she joked had helped secure a free-trade deal \u2014 and how her mother once sent her a uplifting<\/span>, if somewhat grandiose, message: “Remember, even Jesus had people who didn’t like him.”<\/p>\n

On a more serious note, she urged lawmakers to take the politics out of climate change.<\/p>\n

“There will always be policy differences,” Ardern said during her valedictory address, wearing a traditional M\u0101ori cloak called a korowai. “But beneath that, we have what we need to make the progress we must.”<\/p>\n

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<\/span> Indigenous M\u0101ori songs.<\/p>\n

A global icon of the left and an inspiration to women around the world, Ardern in January stepped down<\/span> as prime minister, saying, “I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It is that simple.” But she stayed on as a lawmaker until April to avoid triggering<\/span> a special election ahead of the nation’s general elections in October.<\/p>\n

Later this month, Ardern will begin a new, unpaid role combating online extremism as Special Envoy for the Christchurch Call. It’s an initiative she started with French President Emmanuel Macron in May 2019, two months after a white supremacist gunman killed 51 people at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch.<\/p>\n

She has also announced she’s joining the board<\/span> of trustees for The Earthshot Prize, an environmental charity started by Britain’s Prince William.<\/p>\n

Ardern said she entered politics based on her convictions but got used to her tenure being defined by a different list.<\/p>\n

“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<\/span> or traumatic moments,” she said. “Their stories and faces remain etched in my mind, and likely will forever.”<\/p>\n

She also described how she and fianc\u00e9 Clarke Gayford thought they couldn’t have children after a failed round of IVF.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

Ardern became just the second elected world leader to give birth while holding office after she and Gayford had daughter Neve in 2018.<\/p>\n

Ardern described how she’d approached the COVID-19 pandemic on a scientific basis and how New Zealand had fared best among developed nations when measuring excess mortality.<\/p>\n

She said she once tried to argue with a lone protester about a false conspiracy theory.<\/p>\n

“But after many of these same experiences, and seeing the rage that often sat behind these conspiracies, I had to accept I was wrong,” she said. “I could not single-handedly pull someone out of a rabbit hole.”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

While she couldn’t control how her tenure would be defined by others, Ardern said, she hoped it had demonstrated something else.<\/p>\n

“That you can be anxious, sensitive, kind and wear your heart on your sleeve,” she said. “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.”<\/p>