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Jacinda Ardern
Retired figureNew ZealandBorn 1980

Jacinda Ardern

Prime Minister of New Zealand (2017-2023) · Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party (2017-2023)

Former Labour prime minister of New Zealand who led through the Christchurch mosque attacks and the pandemic before leaving politics in 2023.

Compare yourself See the 12 scores
Profile on 12 axes10 of 12 documented
ECONOMYSTATESOCIETYWORLDOwnershipMarketsWelfareAuthoritySecurityStructureMoralityReligionTechnologyCultureTradeForeign
Where they stand

Jacinda Ardern, axis by axis

  1. 01Ownership-25
    PublicPrivate

    A self-declared social democrat who ruled out taxing capital gains in 2019, so the score sits moderately toward public provision, short of strongly collectivist.

  2. 02Markets-20
    PlannedFree
  3. 03Welfare-50
    SharedSelf-reliant
  4. 04Authority-30
    DemocraticStrong leader
  5. 05Security+10
    LibertyOrder

    Banned most semi-automatic guns after the 2019 attacks and ran strict lockdowns and border rules, part of which a court said broke rights law. This gives a slight lean to order.

  6. 06Structure+15
    LocalCentral

    Pandemic policy ran through a single national alert-level system, which gives a mild lean to the centre.

  7. 07Morality-65
    ProgressiveTraditional
  8. 08Religion-45
    SecularReligious

    Left the Latter-day Saints in 2005 because of its stance on gay rights, later called herself agnostic, and voted to take abortion out of the Crimes Act.

  9. 09TechnologyNo clear record
    EmbraceCaution
  10. 10Culture-45
    MulticulturalNational identity
  11. 11TradeNo clear record
    GlobalProtected

    Beyond New Zealand's long-running free-trade consensus, no distinct position is recorded. Trade and technology are left blank.

  12. 12Foreign policy-60
    CooperationStrength

2 axes have no clear record, so matching leaves them out.

Who is Jacinda Ardern?

Jacinda Ardern is a former New Zealand politician from the Labour Party. She took over Labour's leadership just before the 2017 election and became prime minister at 37, leading a coalition government. At that time she was the youngest female head of government in the world. Her time in office covered the Christchurch mosque shootings of March 2019, in which 51 people died, and also the White Island eruption and then COVID-19. In 2020 Labour won by a landslide, taking about half of the party vote. In January 2023 she announced she was stepping down, saying 'enough in the tank' was gone, and she left parliament in April. Since then she has held fellowships at Harvard, taken the Christchurch Call envoy role and published a memoir, A Different Kind of Power.

Political views

  • Describes herself as a progressive and a social democrat.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  • Named housing, child poverty and climate change as her three focus areas.Source: theguardian.com
  • Promised to cut child poverty by half within ten years, with the Families Package as her main step.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  • Gun law changed fast: less than a month after the Christchurch attacks, most semi-automatic and assault-style weapons were banned.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  • Launched the Christchurch Call alongside Emmanuel Macron, to push terrorist and violent extremist material off the internet.Source: christchurchcall.org
  • Gained cross-party support for the Zero Carbon Act and, in 2020, declared a climate emergency.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  • Backed the 2020 Abortion Legislation Act, which took abortion out of criminal law, and voted to legalize cannabis in the 2020 referendum.Source: en.wikipedia.org

Legacy

Supporters praise Ardern's handling of the Christchurch attacks, including quick gun reform and the Christchurch Call, and the warmth she brought to leadership. Even the opposition leader called her response strong and compassionate. Critics say she did not deliver on promises about housing, child poverty and inequality, and some commentators felt she put caring words ahead of policy. Her lockdowns, vaccine rules and isolation scheme drew criticism over their social costs. In 2022 the High Court held that aspects of managed isolation went against human rights law. Threats against her also rose sharply, coming from conspiracy and anti-vaccine groups. By early 2023 her approval stood at 29 percent.

In their own words

“I know what this job takes. And I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It's that simple.”
Resignation announcement, Napier, 19 January 2023

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Jacinda Ardern: questions

Is Jacinda Ardern left-wing?

She is on the centre-left. She led the Labour Party, calls herself a social democrat and put child poverty and climate on her agenda. In 2019 she ruled out a new tax on capital gains.

What did Jacinda Ardern do after the Christchurch attacks?

Less than a month later her government banned most semi-automatic guns and assault rifles. She also helped start the Christchurch Call with Emmanuel Macron, which targets violent extremist content online.

Why did Jacinda Ardern resign?

In January 2023 she said she no longer had 'enough in the tank' to do the job well. She stepped down as prime minister and left parliament in April.

Sources

Portrait: Jacinda Ardern - Waitangi 2022 (cropped).jpg by New Zealand Government, Office of the Governor-General, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and converted to grayscale by 12axes-test.com.