Category Archives: Jacinda Ardern

Jacinda Ardern and Sanna Marin dismiss suggestion their age and gender was reason for meeting

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Finland’s PM says she met Ardern in New Zealand because they are both ‘prime ministers’ after journalist asks whether it was due to similar age and gender

The prime ministers of Finland and New Zealand have taken a swipe at suggestions their first face-to-face meeting in New Zealand happened because they are both young female leaders.

“We’re meeting because we are prime ministers,” Finland’s Sanna Marin said at a joint press conference at Auckland’s Government House on Wednesday morning, after a journalist suggested some people may have thought they were meeting because they share a similar demographic.

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Ardern says she must be able to raise concerns in Xi Jinping meeting without ‘retaliatory acts’

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Ahead of first meeting with China’s president in three years, New Zealand PM calls for environment where differences can be discussed

Jacinda Ardern has said she must be able to raise concerns with Beijing without prompting “retaliatory acts”, on the eve of her planned meeting with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping.

The pair’s first in-person bilateral meeting since 2019 is due to take place on Friday evening on the sidelines of the Apec forum. It comes during a strained time in New Zealand-China relations, where ideological differences – and New Zealand’s economic reliance on China as an export market – have continued to grow.

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Jacinda Ardern rallies party faithful as Labour faces difficult re-election path

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New Zealand PM tells party conference ‘we are not done yet’ as poll shows Labour’s support at 5-year low ahead of elections in 2023

In the darkened amphitheatre of a south Auckland conference centre, a youth choir swayed, as crowds waited for the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, to take the stage. “Give me one more chance,” they sang, in a medley featuring the Jackson 5’s I Want You Back. “Won’t you please let me back in your heart.”

It was an apt-enough score for the annual Labour conference, with the party facing a steep uphill road to persuade New Zealanders to return them to office for another three years. “We are not done yet,” Ardern told the party faithful, as delegates sought to map a pathway to election victory in an increasingly sour economic and political landscape. Three days of speeches and discussions built a picture of a party girding itself for a bitterly fought campaign: speeches were laced with jabs at centre-right opposition leader Christopher Luxon, warnings of the prospect of gains rolled back under a National government, and encouragement to stay the course under fire.

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Conviction overturned for man who sent death threats to Jacinda Ardern

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Michael Cruickshank argued he was so drunk he could not remember sending the threats to New Zealand’s prime minister

A man sent to prison for sending death threats to New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has had his conviction overturned.

Michael Cruickshank was sentenced to 12 months in prison in March, for a series of emails in which he made violent threats against Ardern. He argued that he was so drunk he could not remember sending the threats, had no intention of seeing them through, and didn’t intend the recipients to take them seriously. On Wednesday, the court of appeal judged that there had been a miscarriage of justice in the case.

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Labor MP claims rate decisions based on ‘outdated and outmoded data’ – as it happened

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NSW roads impacted by rainfall

Man falls to his death while hiking near Gold Coast waterfall

Emergency services were initially called to Tanninaba Falls around 12.15pm following reports a man falling several metres down a cliff face.

Crews located the man at the bottom of the cliff and was declared deceased a short time later.

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New Zealand drops mask and vaccine mandates in sweeping Covid changes

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Jacinda Ardern says it is time to ‘turn the page’ on the pandemic as she scraps all but a handful of restrictions

Jacinda Ardern has declared it “time to safely turn the page” on New Zealand’s Covid-19 restrictions, scrapping all but a handful of remaining rules.

New Zealand, which once eliminated the virus through the toughest pandemic rules in the world, has made relaxations similar to Australian or European conditions.

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New Zealand Labour expels MP Gaurav Sharma from caucus

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PM Jacinda Ardern said caucus voted to expel Sharma over ‘repeated and calculated’ breaches of its rules

Jacinda Ardern and her Labour colleagues have expelled MP Gaurav Sharma from caucus, the first time in more than a decade that the party has taken such action.

The expulsion of Sharma, who was elected as the member for Hamilton West in 2020, came after nearly two weeks of the MP making public allegations of bullying and misconduct against his own party.

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New Zealand’s flood-prone areas not ready to cope with climate crisis, Ardern says

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Touring flood-hit region of Nelson, prime minister says country must do ‘all we can’ to deal with damaging events triggered by a warming climate

New Zealand’s flood- and slip-prone regions do not have the mechanisms in place to cope with rapid environmental changes brought about by the climate crisis, Jacinda Ardern has said after visiting the aftermath of a monster storm.

The prime minister was touring the site of devastating flooding and landslips around Nelson, at the top of the South Island, when she was asked if she was satisfied that New Zealand had the framework and investment to cope with weather events that are becoming more frequent.

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New Zealand Labour MP suspended for breaching ‘sense of trust’, says Ardern

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Suspension of Gaurav Sharma for party rule breaches comes after he made allegations of bullying within the party

New Zealand’s Labour party has suspended MP Gaurav Sharma over what the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said were “repeated breaches” of caucus rules in the past week.

Ardern had called an emergency caucus meeting on Tuesday afternoon, where it was unanimously agreed to suspend Sharma, who has recently made widespread allegations that he and others had experienced bullying within the party.

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New Zealand’s political right surges ahead in polls as Ardern’s popularity dips

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Centre-right National and libertarian Act could form government, according to latest survey, with Labour-Greens bloc trailing on combined 42% support

Jacinda Ardern’s chances of re-election are looking shakier, with new polling indicating that New Zealand’s right-leaning coalition has enough support to form government.

The latest 1 News/Kantar poll, taken as the cost of living soars in New Zealand, marked Ardern’s worst result in the preferred prime minister stakes since her tenure as leader began. Despite falling three points as preferred PM, however, she is still ahead of National’s Chris Luxon, 30% to 22%.

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Smiles and unity at the Pacific Islands Forum mask tough questions shelved for another day

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While leaders presented a picture of harmony, more vexing topics like Australia’s fossil fuel ambitions and China were kicked down the road

At the close of the Pacific Islands Forum the leaders emerged from their retreat smiling, cut a giant cake with a sword and then, in an impromptu moment of diplomatic bonhomie, posed for a selfie after Anthony Albanese whipped out his phone, Ellen DeGeneres style.

It was, quite literally, a picture of harmony.

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Australia news live: fourth covid vaccine dose to be offered from 11 July; NSW rain and flood risk move north

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In his speech, Jason Clare also lamented the fact that although the target of 40% of people aged 25 to 34 having bachelor degrees had been achieved, a separate target for 20% of enrolments to be from people from low socioeconomic backgrounds had not.

Instead, it had “barely moved” from 15%, from when the target was set in 2008. Indigenous enrolment was less than 10%.

I don’t want us to be a country where your chances in life depend on your postcode, your parents, or the colour of your skin. None of us want that. But that’s where we are today. I am not naive, I know this is hard to shift.

And that, at its core, is what the Australian Universities accord will be about: a reset. And an opportunity to build a long-term plan for our universities, together. Drawing on the advice of the leadership in this room, your staff, unions, business, students, parents and all political parties.

Looking at everything from funding and access to affordability, transparency, regulation, employment conditions and also how universities and TAFEs and other higher education and vocational education providers and training institutions work together.

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More major warnings issued as focus turns to mid-north coast – as it happened

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Sussan Ley criticises Labor over flood response

Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley is upping the Coalition’s attacks on the Labor government over the floods, asking why they haven’t activated disaster recovery payments for affected residents.

We have already announced a wide range of support for people but I think it’s fair to assume that there will be more coming.

I can’t commit to anything specific like that but what I can tell you is that from the weekend, I began talking with our authorities about what we could do to make sure that any disaster support we approved got out the door quickly.

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The change in tone at Ardern and Albanese’s meeting could not have been more stark

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A lot has changed since the fraught trans-Tasman exchanges of the Morrison government with the two countries now hitting reset

Jacinda Ardern and Scott Morrison, it seems, were never quite in sync.

Before New Zealand’s leader trumpeted a “reset” of the relationship with Australia on Friday, she exchanged gifts with the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, who was known at one stage or another as “DJ Albo”.

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Labor says Dutton ‘desperate’ to distract from defence failures – as it happened

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Nadesalingam family arrive back home to Biloela; New Zealand ‘heartened’ by Albanese government’s climate stance; Australia records at least 40 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

Jacinda Ardern will be raising Australia’s controversial deportation policy in today’s meeting. Asked if she has knowledge of whether the government is prepared to “water it down a little bit”, she replies:

Just to be clear, the issue we have is not with deportation. We deport as well. If a New Zealander comes to Australia and commits a crime, send them home ... but when someone comes here and essentially, hasn’t even really had any connection with New Zealand at all ... have all their connections in Australia and are essentially Australian, sending them back to New Zealand, that’s where we’ve had the grievance.

I’ve heard the prime minister prior to winning the election speak to his acknowledgement that that is the part of the policy that we’ve taken issue with. Even that acknowledgement says to me he’s hearing us, he knows it’s a problem.

It’s been a bugbear for us for a long time so I would like to see movement on it.

We talked about music on occasion but I’m not sure I would’ve picked necessarily the right music if I think I was given that task.

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Ardern’s fiance takes swipe at Albanese’s outdated music taste after leaders exchange records

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‘What is this, 2004???’ Clarke Gayford posted in response to Australian PM’s gift of Midnight Oil, Spiderbait and Powderfinger albums

Jacinda Ardern’s fiancee has taken a cheeky swipe at Anthony Albanese’s music taste after the Australian prime minister and his New Zealand counterpart exchanged records during the pair’s first face-to-face meeting.

Ardern and Albanese, who have both moonlighted as DJs in the past, made the customary display of gift-giving at their first meeting since the federal election in Sydney on Thursday, with both opting for the high-risk, high-reward gift of music.

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Albanese vows to reconsider Australia’s deportations rules in olive branch to New Zealand

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Jacinda Ardern welcomes ‘reset’ in trans-Tasman relationship after years of tension over visa cancellations on character grounds

The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has vowed to consider changing how the government handles visa cancellations in an olive branch to ease longstanding tensions with New Zealand.

The pledge to look at tweaking the scheme prompted the visiting New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, to declare the talks in Sydney on Friday allowed for “a reset” in the trans-Tasman relationship.

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Jacinda Ardern to visit Anthony Albanese to discuss ‘difficult’ deportation issue

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New Zealand PM arriving in Sydney on Thursday will be first foreign leader hosted by new Labor government

Jacinda Ardern will visit Australia later this week to meet the new prime minister, Anthony Albanese, when she plans to again raise the issue of “501” deportations of New Zealanders.

The New Zealand PM will visit Sydney on Thursday – the first foreign leader hosted by the new Labor government.

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Biden praises Ardern for ‘galvanising action’ on gun control and climate change

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US president welcomes New Zealand’s PM to Oval Office and speaks of devastation caused by mass shootings

New Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern has met US president Joe Biden to discuss shared concerns about China’s growing influence in the Pacific, as well as extremism and dealing with the aftermath of mass shootings.

The two leaders spoke for more than an hour, with Biden saying Ardern’s leadership on issues like climate change, violence and extremism was of international importance.

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New Zealand and allies allowed ‘vacuum’ to develop in Pacific, former foreign minister says

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Comments by Winston Peters come as China hopes 10 Pacific countries will sign wide-ranging security deal

New Zealand and its allies have failed to listen to “alarm bells” about China’s growing influence, and allowed a “vacuum” to develop in the Pacific, New Zealand’s former foreign minister Winston Peters has said.

His comments come amid news that China hopes 10 Pacific countries will sign a wide-ranging draft deal covering security, trade and investment. The agreement would dramatically increase China’s influence in the region.

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