Jacinda Ardern is a New Zealand politician and the leader of the New Zealand Labour Party who currently is serving as the 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand since October 2017. With her positioning as the 40th Prime Minister at age of 37, she became the youngest female lead of government ever in the world.
She was first elected as a list MP to the House of Representatives in 2008 and has been a member of Parliament(MP) for Mount Albert since March 2017. She is also the youngest leader of the Labour party and the second female to lead it after Helen Clark.
Having her career started initially as a researcher in the office of Prime Minister Helen Clark in 2001, within 16 years, Ardern became one of the few successful female leaders in the world. Identifying herself as a social democrat, a progressive, a republican, and a feminist, Ardern has led her country through the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque shootings, even introducing strict gun laws in response, and most importantly she directed the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic throughout 2020.
Ardern led the Labour Party to victory in the 2020 general election, winning a second term in a Landslide. With her remarkable works as a prime minister, she is one of the most influential women of 2020 and also was listed by Prospect as the second-greatest thinker for the COVID-19 era. Besides, Ardern is quite active on social media sites with over 1.5 million followers on Instagram: @jacindaardern and over 665k followers on Twitter: @jacindaardern.
What is Jacinda Ardern famous for?
- Famous as a New Zealand politician
- Known for being the present and the 40th prime minister of New Zealand
Source: @stuff.co.nz
Where is Jacinda Ardern from?
Jacinda Ardern was born on July 26, 1980, in Hamilton, New Zealand. Her birth name is Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern. Her nationality is New Zealander. Ardern belongs to White ethnicity while Leo is her zodiac sign.
Jacinda Ardern was born as the daughter to her well-educated parents: Ross Ardern(father) and Laurell Bottomley(mother). Her father, Ross worked as a police officer and is currently the Administrator of Tokelau while her mother, Laurell worked as a school catering assistant. Ardern grew up along with her sibling Louise in Morrinsville and Murupara, where she attended Morrinsville College where she served as the student representative on the school’s Board of Trustees. Her first job was working at a local fish-and-chip shop while she was still in her school.
Since her childhood, she had an interest in politics influenced by her aunt Marie Ardern who was a longstanding member of the Labour Party. She joined the Labour Party at the age of 17, becoming a senior figure in the Young Labour sector of the party.
Later she went to the University of Waikato where she completed her education earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Studies in politics and public relations in 2001. Soon after her graduation, she started her career working in the offices of Phil Goff and Helen Clark as a researcher. She then went to New York and worked as a volunteer in a soup kitchen for the next six months. During this time, she also worked on a workers’ rights campaign.
At London, she became a senior policy adviser in an 80-person policy unit of then-British prime minister Tony Blair.
Jacinda Ardern’s Career in Politics as a Prime Minister
- Jacinda Ardern started her career initially working as a researcher in the office of Prime Minister Helen Clark in 2001 at age of 21.
- Ardern entered her political career when she got elected as the president of the International Union of Socialist Youth in 2008.
- The same year, she was selected as Labour’s party candidate for MP of the Waikato district.
- She entered the parliament of the party as its youngest sitting MP and later recruiting as the Labour’s spokesperson for Youth Affairs and associate spokesperson for Justice(Youth Affairs) at age of 28.
- She lost two times in a row in the general election held in 2011 and 2014.
- She was also appointed as spokesperson for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Children, Justice, and Small Business by the new party leader Andrew Little.
- For the 2017 Mount Albert by-election, she was unanimously selected as the Labour candidate, just a month later recruited as deputy leader of the party.
- At her first press conference after her election as leader, she said that the forthcoming election campaign would be one of “relentless positivity”.
- She received plenty of positive coverage from both domestic and international media with the ‘Jacinda effect’ and ‘Jacinda mania’ sweeping the country.
- In the 2017 general election, the Labour Party got the second-highest vote and in collaboration with the Greens and the New Zealand First Party, Ardern became the 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand preceded by. She became the third female prime minister after Jenny Shipley (1997–1999) and Helen Clark (1999–2008).
Jacinda Ardern’s Prime Minister Reign
- Ardern’s government has implemented steady increases in the country’s minimum wage.
- Has introduced the Provincial Growth Fund t invest in rural infrastructure projects.
- Opposed criminalizing people who use cannabis in New Zealand.
- The government would not implement a capital gains tax.
- Banned most semiautomatic weapons and assault rifles.
- Has supported same-sex marriage, decriminalization of abortion, a lower rate of immigration due to infrastructure issues, and a higher number of refugees.
- Ardern made her first official overseas trip to Australia meeting Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for the first time on November 5, 2017.
- Ardern voiced support for the UN resolution criticizing US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017.
- Ardern became the first female head of government to attend the United Nations General Assembly meeting with her infant present on September 24, 2018.
- In response to the 2019’s fatal shootings at Christchurch mosque, Ardern showed her concern, mourned for the deaths, visited the Muslim community, becoming the first signatory of a national condolence book that she opened in the capital, Wellington.
- In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ardern made new quarantine rules also claiming it to be the widest-ranging and toughest border restrictions of any country in the world.
- She led to the strict rules up to alert level 4 including a nationwide lockdown, at 11:59 pm on March 25, 2020. Her leadership and the swift response was appreciated worldwide. She even got New Zealand to show a few cases.
- In May 2020, Ardern rated 59.5 percent as ‘preferred prime minister’ in a Newshub Reid Research poll—the highest score for any leader in the Reid Research poll’s history
- Recently, in October 2020, Ardern won a second term as a prime minister leading her party to a landslide victory.
Source: @pariwartankhabar
Jacinda Ardern Husband
Jacinda Ardern is engaged to her partner, Clarke Gayford. Gayford is a New Zealand radio and television broadcaster, who is well known for being the presenter of the fishing documentary show, “Fish of the Day”. Born on October 24, 1976, Grayford has been referred to as the spouse of the prime minister, although the couple is unmarried. Ardern and Gayford met for the first time in 2012 when they were introduced by mutual friend Colin Mathura-Jeffree(model and television host).
Even though they met they didn’t spend much time together until Gayford contacted Ardern regarding a controversial Government Communications Security Bureau bill.
Almost after 6 years since the day they first met, Order announced of expecting her first child in June, with her partner, Gayford on January 19, 2018. With the birth of her daughter named Neve Te Aroha on June 21, 2018, she became New Zealand’s first prime minister to be pregnant in office.
Following the birth of their first baby, they got engaged on May 3, 2019. The couple even owned a ginger-and-white polydactyl cat named Paddles, which became a celebrity as the ‘First Cat’ after Ardern took office, who died in November 2017 after getting hit by a car.
Besides, Ardern is a second cousin of the mayor of Whanganui Hamish McDouall and is also a distant cousin of former National MP for Taranaki-King Country Shane Ardern.
Source: @gettyimages
Jacinda Ardern Net worth
Jacinda Ardern has quite good earnings from her professional career as a Prime Minister of New Zealand. Having her initial career as a researcher in 2001, Ardern has managed to come a long way up becoming one of the most influential and powerful female leaders in the world.
Ardern has an annual income of $471k with her monthly salary as $26k, weekly as $5k, and per day as $1k for the position of Prime Minister. With her salary and incomes, Ardern has an estimated net worth of $800k.
Jacinda Ardern Height
Jacinda Ardern is a beautiful lady with a well maintained healthy body physique in her 40s. She stands tall with a height of 5ft. 6inch.(1.65m) while her body weighs around 55kg(121 lbs). She has a fair complexion with light brown hair and eyes.
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