Look Who it Was Random video

People and place connect - Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on her second home

1,234 views · Published 27 August 2018 · 7:05 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: gisborneherald · 2018 · Entertainment

Watch on YouTube

The people and the environment are behind New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s claim she is a “Gizzy wannabe”.
“It is a beautiful place to visit. “I remember after I first came here with (partner) Clarke (Gayford), afterwards calling my mum and asking whether any of our family were from here . . . I felt a strange connection to this place.

http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/video
https://www.facebook.com/gisborneherald/videos
https://www.youtube.com/gisborneherald

“I love coming here in the summer. We come every Christmas holidays.”

Ms Ardern said a favourite spot for her was Mahia.

“Clarke’s family always have headed to Mahia over summer.”

But Ms Ardern has a few Gisborne rituals of her own.

“I do a few laps of the main street and visit the book shop . . . get Christmas presents . . . get an ice cream at Wainui.

“We take a daily walk along the beach and I always resolve I am going to go up Kaiti Hill — but have not done it as much as I should.”

The Herald asked her thoughts on how Gisborne could do better economically and socially.

“We do have some work to do on partnerships. We are really looking to the region for ideas but it strikes me there is potential here for wood processing, tourism and partnering together to deal with some of the issues the Tairawhiti community has been calling for assistance with for a long time.”

When Ms Ardern first came here and realised there were no addiction treatment programmes, it really stood out to her.

“I have been talking to the Minister of Health about it ever since.

“We have such a high suicide rate here and need extra public housing. I am pleased to say we are now working on bringing in an extra 330 houses through central and local government — trying to address some of those issues.”

She says there is huge potential here for tourism.

“It is a beautiful place and New Zealanders should come and check out their own backyard.

“Anything we can do to encourage that, particularly around transport infrastructure, we should.”

“We will have more to say, particularly as we see a roll-out of the regional growth fund. This is one of our focus areas.”

Ms Ardern was in Gisborne for a meeting with iwi and to be guest speaker at a special breakfast to commemorate 125 years of women’s suffrage. It was co-hosted by Gisborne Business and Professional Women’s Federation and Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.

On the subject of what the suffragettes would think about New Zealand now, she said probably pleased and frustrated.

“When you think about what Margaret Sievwright was saying, she was equally focused on women’s right to vote, but also equal pay and financial security. We still have a long way to go on those things, so probably they would be a bit frustrated.

Ms Ardern says they also might be frustrated about how long it took for a woman to get into Parliament.

“But at the same time we have the highest number of women in Parliament ever this year. We have made some gains and should celebrate those. We should also keep our expectations high for ourselves.”

She was asked if the PM had any practices to keep herself grounded.

“How do you practise being normal?”

Nowadays, she does spend time doing “very normal things”, especially now baby Neve has arrived.

“Things like nappy changes. I find those things very grounding.

“Also it helps having family, especially extended family, who very often take different views and they do a good job of making sure that I have those alternate perspectives too.

Politics could feel like it is the thing everybody is watching.

“Then I will go and talk to my sister, and she won’t have registered something that happened that day because she has a toddler and a five-year-old and life is busy.

“So, remembering the thing that feels all-consuming for me, for someone else whether their school run was easier today is more important.

“So that makes me realise the things we need to resolve and work on are things that affect people’s everyday life. The politics, the noise around the edges, doesn’t matter.

Asked how she maintains her integrity, she said when you compared NZ politics with others, you could see our system was really designed to maintain the integrity of the institution.

“ I feel that strongly.

“Regardless of people’s politics, we are very lucky we do have a Parliament that has maintained a high level of integrity.

“At a personal level, how do I feel good about the decisions I am making?

“I am very intuitive. I just follow my instincts. Things will feel either the right thing to do or the wrong thing and, as long as I follow that, I can sleep at night.”

Filmed and Edited by
Ben Cowper

SUBSCRIBE!
http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=gisborneherald

More from this channel