New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern returned to Parliament yesterday to run her first Cabinet meeting, six weeks after giving birth to her daughter, becoming only the second elected leader to do so in office.
Ministers applauded as Ardern entered the Cabinet meeting room and took her place beside Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, thanking him for running the country, allowing her to become its first prime minister to take maternity leave when in office.
“The last six weeks have been wonderful not only because of the birth of our healthy daughter, but because we have been gifted by this Cabinet, by the people of New Zealand, this time together,” Ardern said.
Photo: AFP
“It’s really, really nice to be back amongst you all,” she told colleagues. “Shall we get on with it?”
Ardern’s daughter, Neve Te Aroha, did not accompany her to the meeting.
However, steps to make parliament more baby-friendly allow her to cuddle with her mother during debates and swim in the legislators’ pool.
Many see the 38-year-old prime minister’s pregnancy as symbolizing progress for women in leadership roles, as, in giving birth while in office, she followed Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto in 1990.
Ardern officially returned to work on Thursday from her home in Auckland and flew to the capital, Wellington, on Saturday to be greeted by a high-school choir at the airport, where she spoke to reporters with the baby asleep in her arms.
Ardern, who is breastfeeding, was accompanied by partner, Clarke Gayford, who is caring for Neve full-time. Their plans for the weekend included setting up second-hand baby furniture at Premier House, her official residence, she told media.
Ardern’s return comes amid looming economic headwinds and business confidence hovering near decade lows.
Economic fundamentals and government finances were strong, she told reporters after the meeting, which lasted most of the afternoon.
She added that she would work to communicate government economic plans to businesses, to steer the economy away from reliance on housing and immigration.
“That does mean we are modernizing our economy and with change comes uncertainty,” she said, adding that growing turbulence in world trade was probably worsening business gloom.
Ardern launched the “trade for all” agenda, a series of public meetings that aims to broadcast the benefits of trade and keep growing global protectionism from spreading in New Zealand.
“We wanted ... to develop our principles and values that we as a government are pursuing in our trade agreements that has buy-in for all of New Zealand,” she added.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was