Jacinda Ardern was New Zealand’s 40th prime minister and head of the Labour Party from 2017 until she stepped down in January 2023. She made her first entry into the parliament in 2008 and has served as Mount Albert’s Member of Parliament (MP) since March 2017.
Ardern was initially elected as an MP (member of parliament) in the 2008 general election when the Labour Party lost its control over the government business after leading it for over nine years. In the February 2017 by-election, she was elected as the house representative of the Mt Albert electorate.
Following Annette King’s resignation, she unanimously won the Labour Party deputy leader seat on March 1, 2017. And only five months forward, with the general election fast approaching, Labour’s leader Mr Andrew Little stepped down following a record-low survey result for the Labour Party, and Ardern took over, unopposed.
Jacinda led her wing to a 14-seat gain in the 2017 election, gaining 46 seats compared to the National Party’s 56.
After months of discussions, Nz first reached an agreement to form a minority coalition government with Labour; with the Green Party’s backing, Ardern became prime minister; on October 26, 2017, she took an oath of office overseen by the governor-general.
At age 37, Jacinda became the world’s youngest female government leader. When her daughter was born on June 21, 2018, Ardern became the world’s second head of state (elected) to give birth while in office this was after Benazir Bhutto.
Ardern identifies herself as a progressive and social democrat. The Sixth Labour Government has prioritised the housing crisis in New Zealand, social inequality, and child poverty.
She led New Zealand through the period following the Christ-church mosque attacks in March 2019, quickly enacting strict gun legislation in response. And during 2020, she directed the country’s response team to the COVID-19 epidemic, which got praise globally.
The Labour Party won a majority of 65 positions in Parliament in the 2020 general election under Jacinda Ardern’s leadership, making it the first time since the implementation of proportional representation in 1996.
Jacinda Ardern Net Worth
Jacinda Ardern’s estimated net worth is around $1.5 million, making her a non-millionaire. Her annual compensation is around $471,049. Her private companies are her primary source of revenue. She is one of the world’s most powerful women. Her excellent work has afforded her a luxury lifestyle and exotic adventures.
Jacinda Ardern’s Early Life
Jacinda Kate Ardern was born on July 26th, 1980, in Hamilton, Nz, making her 42 years old today. She was brought up as a Mormon in Murupara and Morrinsville. Her mother, Laurell Ardern, served as a catering assistant at a school, and her father, Ross Ardern, was a police officer.
She went to Morrinsville College, wherein she served as the trustees’ student representative. Jacinda secured her first employment while still in school, serving at a nearby fish and chip business. She continued her education at the University of Waikato, earning a Bachelor of Communication Studies in public relations and politics in 2001.
Jacinda’s aunt Marie, a devoted supporter of the Labour Party, engaged the young Ardern to help her in her campaign to help New Plymouth’s MP Harry Duynhoven win reelection in the 1999 general election.
Political Career
At only 17, Ardern was among the young leaders on the Labour Party list, and she gradually rose to prominence among the Young Labour faction. She was a researcher in Phil Goff and Helen Clark’s offices for a while after earning her degree from college.
She also spent some time in NYC, the United States, where she assisted in a soup kitchen and engaged in a workers’ rights campaign.
She later relocated to London and joined the then Britain Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, policy section as a senior adviser. She did not see Blair in London but challenged him about the Iraq invasion at a gathering in Nz in 2011. Ardern was also assigned to the UK Home Office to evaluate law enforcement in Britain and Wales.
At 27, Ardern was nominated by the International Union of Socialist Youth (IUSY). This was during their world convention in the Dominican Republic to serve as their president for two years beginning on January 30, 2008.
Her travels for the job took her to Jordan, Algeria, Israel, and China, among other places.
Ardern was listed as the 20th party candidate on Labour’s party list before the 2008 election. This was an extremely high placement for someone who wasn’t a serving MP and guaranteed her a spot in Parliament.
Ardern consequently went from London to continue her full-time campaign. She also became Labour’s choice for the Waikato seat in the safe National district.
Despite losing the popular vote, Ardern could go into House as a list Member of Parliament because of her strong standing on Labour’s party list. She succeeded former Labour MP Darren Hughes as the youngest member of Parliament after her election, and she held that title until Gareth Hughes was elected on February 11, 2010.
Ardern was elevated to the front bench by opposition leader Phil Goff and appointed as Labour’s spokeswoman for Youth Affairs and associate spokesperson for Justice (Youth Affairs).
She frequently featured on TVNZ’s Breakfast programme as part of the “Young Guns” segment, where she appeared with National MP Simon Bridges, who would later become a National leader.
In the 2011 national election, Ardern ran for Labour in the Auckland Central constituency, taking against Denise Roche of the Green Party and current National MP Nikki Kaye. Despite intentionally seeking Green voters to cast her votes, Kaye defeated her by 717 votes.
After re-election to Parliament, she was placed thirteenth on the party list. Ardern maintained a place of business in the area while serving as a list MP with her headquarters in Auckland Central.
Ardern backed David Shearer against David Cunliffe when Goff quit as the Party’s leader after losing the 2011 election. On December 19, 2011, she was promoted to the fourth post in his Shadow Cabinet, where she now serves as the new leader’s spokesperson for social development.
Jacinda Ardern campaigned for office again in Auckland Central in the general election 2014. Although she boosted her votes and decreased Kaye’s dominance from 717 to 600, she again came in second place. Ardern, who placed fifth on Labour’s list, was re-elected to Parliament and appointed Andrew Little’s deputy spokesperson for justice, small business, children, and the arts & culture.
Jacinda Ardern’s Nomination
After David Shearer resigned on December 8th, 2016, Ardern put her name forward for the Labour candidature for the Mt. Albert by-election scheduled for February 2017. She was the only candidate when the Labour Party’s nomination period ended on January 12th.
Ardern took part in the 2017 Women’s March on January 21, a global demonstration against Donald Trump, the recently-elected president of the USA. On January 22, she was formally the Labour Party’s candidate during a general gathering. And with 77 per cent of the votes cast during the initial figures, Ardern triumphed handily.
After winning the by-election, Jacinda was unanimously chosen to serve as the Labour Party’s deputy leader on March 7, 2017, taking Annette King’s place, who had announced her intention to step down at the next election. Raymond Huo occupied Ardern’s former list position.
Jacinda Ardern As the Opposition Leader
Following Andrew Little’s resignation on August 1 of that year, Ardern took over as Labour Party leader and, as a result, was named head of the opposition seven just seven weeks ahead of the general election.
Mr Little stepped down because the party was polling at historically low levels. Ardern was unanimously elected as the next leader at a caucus gathering later that day. Ardern, 37, became the Labour Party’s youngest leader in party history.
She follows Helen Clark as the party’s second female leader. Little approached Ardern on July 26 and suggested she step up as Labour leader because he believed he could not turn the party around. Ardern declined and allegedly advised Little to “stick it out.”
She promised a campaign of “relentless positivity” during her first press briefing after being chosen as the new leader. The public immediately flooded the party with money when she was appointed, reaching a peak of NZ$700 every minute. Labour’s popularity soared in polls following Ardern’s election as leader.
According to the Colmar Brunton polls by late August, after falling to 24% under Little’s leadership, the party hit 43%. It also surpassed National for the first time in more than ten years.
Detractors pointed out that her views were remarkably akin to Andrew Little’s and contended that Labour’s sudden popularity surge resulted from her youth and attractiveness.
Despite ruling out taxing family homes, Ardern said in mid-August that the government of Labour would set up a tax task force to investigate the prospect of enacting a capital gains tax.
Ardern decided against enacting a capital gains tax in the first year of the Labour government in reaction to unfavourable press. Grant Robertson, a spokeswoman for the finance ministry, later emphasised that Labour would only enact new taxes after the 2020 election.
The policy move came on the heels of Steven Joyce, Minister of Finance, vehement claims that Labour had an $11.7 billion “hole” in its tax strategy.
Farmers have also criticised the Labour and Green parties’ proposed pollution and water fees. Federated Farmers, a farming advocacy group, protested the taxes in Ardern’s hometown of Morrinsville on September 18, 2017.
New Zealand founding leader Winston Peters joined the protest to campaign but was booed by farmers who assumed he supported the taxes as well. During the rally, one farmer held a poster that called Ardern a “pretty communist.” The former Prime Minister Helen Clark called this “misogynistic.”
The opinion surveys tightened in the last moments of the general election campaign, with National taking a slim lead.
Jacinda Ardern’s Honours
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, chose Ardern as one of fifteen women on the cover of British Vogue’s September 2019 issue. In 2019, Forbes magazine ranked her 38th among the world’s 100 most powerful women.
She was named on the 2019 Time 100 list and nominated for Time’s Person of the Year in 2019. The magazine later wrongly predicted that she would be one of six nominees for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize for her exemplary handling of the tragic Christchurch mosque attacks.
Prospect named her the second-greatest thinker of the COVID-19 era in 2020. Ardern received Harvard University’s 2020 Gleitsman International Activist Award on November 19, 2020; she donated US$150,000, translating to NZ$216,000 prize money to New Zealanders students.
In 2021, New Zealand scientist Steven A. Trewick named the flightless wt species Hemiandrus Jacinda in honour of Ardern. According to a representative for Ardern, a beetle (Mecodema Jacinda), lichen, and ant have all been named after her.
Fortune magazine named Ardern the world’s most outstanding leader, in mid-May 2021, noting her leadership throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and her management of the Christchurch mosque massacres and the 2019 Whakaari, or White Island, eruption.
Leadership Style
Jacinda Ardern has defined herself as a social democrat, progressive, republican, and feminist and has cited Helen Clark as a political idol. She has called New Zealand’s homelessness and child poverty a “blatant failure” of capitalism.
Ardern argues for a reduction in immigration, estimating a 20,000-30,000 drop. She describes the problem as an “infrastructure issue, ” claiming that there needs to be more planning regarding population growth, and they need to target their skill gaps adequately. She does, however, want to increase the number of refugees accepted.
Ardern feels that the retention or abolition of Māori voters should be decided by Māori, noting [Māori] hasn’t expressed the need for these seats to be abolished. She favours mandatory Māori language instruction in schools.
Ardern stated in September 2017 that she wanted New Zealand to debate replacing the queen as the country’s head of state. Ardern noted that she hoped New Zealand would become a republic within her life when she announced the choice of Dame Cindy Kiro as her successor as Governor-General of New Zealand on May 24, 2021.
She has met members of the Royal Family frequently throughout the years, and she stated that their particular opinions continue to reflect her respect for the Queen and her family and the work they’ve done for New Zealand. She also highlighted that anyone can hold a similar view as she does.
Ardern has advocated for same-sex marriage and voted in favour of the Union (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act 2013, which legalised it. She became New Zealand’s first prime minister who took part in a gay pride parade in 2018.
Ardern supports abortion legal reform by removing abortion from the Crimes Act of 1961. In March 2020, she voted in favour of the Abortion Legislation Act, which alters the law to make abortion legal.
She called implementing measures on climate change her generation’s nuclear-free moment, referring to New Zealand’s nuclear-free stance. Ardern has spoken out in favour of a two-state approach to the Israeli-Palestinian issue. She has criticised the deaths of Palestinians during border protests in Gaza.
Ardern backed Yes during the 2020 New Zealand cannabis poll, but she would not announce her view on legalisation when the referendum was over.
Jacinda Ardern’s Religion
Ardern spent much of her childhood in New Zealand as a member of The religion of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She left the faith in 2005 because it conflicted with her beliefs, particularly her support for LGBT rights.
Ardern declared herself an agnostic in January 2017, arguing that she can’t see herself ever being a member of an organised faith again. Although, as Prime Minister, in 2019, she met Russell M. Nelson, President of the LDS Church.
Husband
Clarke Gayford, a tv host, is the spouse of Jacinda Ardern. The couple met in late 2012 through a familiar acquaintance, Nz model and tv host Colin Mathura-Jeffree. However, they spent little time together until Clarke contacted Ardern about a controversial Communications Security Bureau bill.
Kid
Ardern revealed her pregnancy on January 19, 2018. Ardern was hospitalised at Auckland City Hospital on 21 June 2018 and gave birth to a girl the next day, becoming the second leader of the government to do so, after Benazir Bhutto.
On June 24, Ardern revealed her daughter’s name: Neve Te Aroha. Neve is an anglicised variant of Niamh, meaning ‘bright’; Aroha is Mori for ‘love,’ and Te Aroha is a mountain in the Kaimai Range near Ardern’s hometown of Morrinsville.
Conclusion
As with public figures, detailed assessments of their financial standing take time to come by. Ardern relies significantly on her New Zealand Prime Minister salary to sustain herself and her family.
It’s worth emphasising that politicians like Ardern often prioritise public service over personal wealth. Nonetheless, it is realistic to presume that her current economic stability and possible future earnings have been boosted by her role as the head of the nation and her exceptional achievements.
Jacinda Ardern’s caring leadership, progressive views, and global impact have far-reaching consequences. Her dedication to environmental and social issues has earned her great admiration and propelled her to the pinnacle of international politics.
Regardless of her net worth, Ardern’s endeavours as New Zealand’s Prime Minister and dedication to addressing social issues have placed her as a highly admired and influential person both within her country and globally.