Jacinda Ardern
Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern[4] (/dʒəˈsɪndə ˈɑːrdɜːrn/;[1] born 26 July 1980) is a New Zealand politician who has served as the 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand and Leader of the Labour Party since 2017. She has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mount Albert since March 2017, having first been elected to the House of Representatives as a list MP in 2008.[5]
Born in Hamilton, Ardern grew up in Morrinsville and Murupara, where she attended a state school. After graduating from the University of Waikato in 2001, Ardern began her career working as a researcher in the office of Prime Minister Helen Clark. She later worked in London, within the Cabinet Office, and was elected President of the International Union of Socialist Youth.[6][7] Ardern was first elected as an MP in the 2008 general election, when Labour lost power after nine years. She was later elected to represent the Mount Albert electorate in a by-election in February 2017.
Ardern was unanimously elected as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party on 1 March 2017, following the resignation of Annette King. Just five months later, with an election due, Labour Leader Andrew Little resigned after a historically low opinion polling result for the party, with Ardern elected unopposed as Leader of the Labour Party in his place.[8] She led her party to gain 14 seats at the 2017 general election on 23 September, winning 46 seats to the National Party's 56.[9] After a period of negotiations, New Zealand First chose to enter a minority coalition government with Labour, supported by the Green Party, with Ardern as Prime Minister; she was sworn in by the Governor-General on 26 October 2017.[10]
The Ardern Government has focused particularly on the New Zealand housing crisis, child poverty, and social inequality. In March 2019, she led the country through the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque shootings, rapidly introducing strict gun laws in response. She has been praised for her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand.
Ardern describes herself as a social democrat and a progressive.[11][12] At the time of her appointment as prime minister, she became the world's youngest female head of government, achieving office at age 37.[13] Ardern later became the world's second elected head of government to give birth while in office (after Benazir Bhutto) when her daughter was born on 21 June 2018
Born in Hamilton, New Zealand,[15] Ardern grew up as a Mormon[16][17] in Morrinsville and Murupara, where her father, Ross Ardern, worked as a police officer,[18] and her mother, Laurell Ardern (née Bottomley), worked as a school catering assistant.[19][20] She studied at Morrinsville College,[21] where she was the student representative on the school's Board of Trustees.[22] Whilst still at school she found her first job, working at a local fish-and-chip shop.[23] She then attended the University of Waikato, graduating in 2001 with a Bachelor of Communication Studies (BCS) in politics and public relations.[24]
Ardern was brought into politics by her aunt, Marie Ardern, a longstanding member of the Labour Party, who recruited the teenaged Ardern to help her with campaigning for New Plymouth MP Harry Duynhoven during his re-election campaign at the 1999 general election.[25]
Ardern joined the Labour Party at the age of 17,[26] and became a senior figure in the Young Labour sector of the party. After graduating from university, she spent time working in the offices of Phil Goff and of Helen Clark as a researcher. After a period of time in New York City, where she volunteered at a soup kitchen[27] and worked on a workers' rights campaign,[28] Ardern moved to London where she became a senior policy adviser in an 80-person policy unit of then-British prime minister Tony Blair.[6] She did not meet Blair in London, but did question him about the invasion of Iraq at an event in New Zealand in 2011.[29] Ardern was also seconded to the Home Office to help with a review of policing in England and Wales.[24]
In early 2008, Ardern was elected as the president of the International Union of Socialist Youth,[7] a role which saw her spend time in several countries, including Jordan, Israel, Algeria and China
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