Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her family are relocating to Australia, becoming the most high-profile addition to a growing wave of Kiwis moving across the Tasman Sea.
After spending much of her time overseas since her 2023 resignation, Ardern and her family now plan to base themselves in Australia, a spokesman said yesterday.
Australian media earlier reported that Ardern, 45, her husband, Clarke Gayford, and their seven-year-old daughter, Neve, were seen house hunting in Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
Photo: AP
“For the moment they’re basing themselves out of Australia — they have work there, and it brings the added bonus of more time back home in New Zealand,” the spokesman said in a statement Thursday.
Ardern is one of hordes of Kiwis who have moved to Australia in the past few months. Official data released earlier this month showed more than 60,000 New Zealand citizens left the country last year, with 61 percent headed across the Tasman.
The exodus would be a key issue in November’s general election, with many moving to Australia in search of higher wages and a better standard of living — intensifying pressure on lawmakers to make New Zealand more competitive and attractive.
The spokesperson did not elaborate on when the family arrived in Australia nor what kind of work they were doing, but said it was not unusual for former leaders to spend time overseas after leaving office.
Since her shock resignation, Ardern has spent most of her time in the US, taking up dual fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is also on the board of Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, and last year released her memoir A Different Kind of Power.
Ardern rose to power in 2017 on a wave of adulation dubbed “Jacinda-mania.” Amid major Western powers lurching to the right, Ardern’s brand of politics made her a global icon of the left.
In 2020, she led the Labour Party to a 50 percent share of the vote at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented victory under the current electoral system.
Her brand of leadership proved divisive in New Zealand, particularly over some of her government’s COVID-19 vaccination and lockdown measures. Mounting cost-of-living pressures during her second term also added to her unpopularity among some New Zealanders.
When she quit politics in 2023, she said it was because she did not have the energy or inspiration to seek re-election.
Additional reporting by The Guardian
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