New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said those are the things she has obsessed over the most as a new parent, and that the experience of focusing on such basic needs for her baby girl has helped her appreciate why people with young families may not find time for politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s our job to make sure that we are serving the needs of people, regardless of whether they have time to engage with what we\u2019re doing or not,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s something that\u2019s been really amplified for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ardern, 38, is just the second elected world leader in recent history to give birth while holding office, and her story has provided inspiration for working mothers around the world. Ardern said ordinary folk from as far afield as the Netherlands and India have written to congratulate her. But she said that as she came to the end of her leave, she was anxious to demonstrate that she and her partner Clarke Gayford, who will become Neve\u2019s primary caregiver, can create a routine that works.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat I will come back and do the job that I promised to do,\u201d Ardern said.<\/p>\n
Asked if she felt pressure to be a role model as a working mother in such a high-profile job, she said that every new parent feels some degree of pressure. \u201cI just happen to be doing it publicly,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I guess it\u2019s different in one regard. But one day, hopefully, it won\u2019t be.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said that becoming a parent hasn\u2019t changed her views on specific government policies, other than reinforcing her view that there needs to be a clear and strong focus on supporting families. She said her vision for the country was for it to live up to how people perceived it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe ourselves to be clean and green. We believe ourselves to be fair minded, to have a strong sense of social justice, and we think we\u2019re innovative,\u201d she said. \u201cActually, we need to do a lot more to make that a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n
But she said her vision of a stronger nation didn\u2019t mean that New Zealand was ready to become a republic. She said the country may need to finish working through its process of addressing historic injustices committed against indigenous Maori before it could sever its constitutional ties with Britain, whose Queen Elizabeth II remains New Zealand\u2019s head of state.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment, the issue of New Zealand being a republic is just not a priority,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Beyond her own borders, Ardern said the summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and the return of human remains from the Korean War had given the world hope.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, of course, that needs to be fulfilled by further demonstration that there will be denuclearization,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I think that everyone\u2019s probably waiting with bated breath.\u201d<\/p>\n
She wouldn\u2019t be drawn in on ties between Russia and the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are relationships for both countries to manage,\u201d she said. \u201cOf course, like many other countries and leaders, I\u2019m sure, I\u2019ve certainly been observing the dynamic and just what\u2019s happening from a political perspective.\u201d She is concerned about escalating trade tensions between the U.S. and China.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re obviously watching what can happen in a tit-for-tat trade war,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd the potential of where that could lead us is something that of course will be of concern to a number of nations, not just New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said those are the things she has obsessed over the most as a new parent, and that the experience of focusing on such basic needs for her baby girl has helped her appreciate why people with young families may not find time for politics. \u201cSo it\u2019s our job to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38130,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38131,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38129\/revisions\/38131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}