Ms Ardern delivered her last speech to Parliament since leaving the premiership in January. Credit: Mark Mitchell/New Zealand Herald via AP
Jacinda Ardern said she was campaigning for prime minister in part to «distract» herself after her failed IVF attempt, during an emotional farewell speech in the New Zealand Parliament.
A global icon of the left, Ms Ardern surprised her followers, who stepped down as prime minister in January, in January by saying she had no more left in the tank.
This comes after criticism over its strict zero Covid policy, runaway inflation and a cost-of-living crisis.
In her 35-minute farewell speech on Wednesday, she touched on the ups and downs of her time in office since 2017.
“A domestic terrorist attack. Eruption. Pandemic. A series of events in which I found myself in people's lives at the most difficult or traumatic moments, ”she said. “Their stories and faces remain in my memory and probably will forever.”
She also revealed how she and fiancée Clarke Gayford thought they wouldn't be able to have children after a failed IVF round.
«Instead of processing it, I campaigned to be Prime Minister»— she joked. “A pretty good distraction, as far as they can go. Imagine my surprise when I found out I was pregnant a couple of months later.”
Speaking for the last time in Parliament, Jacinda Ardern delivered her farewell speech. She is giving up a 15-year political career, five of which she spent as prime minister.
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Ms Ardern is the second elected world leader , who gave birth while in office after she and Mr Gayford had a daughter, Neve, in 2018.
She also told funny anecdotes, including how her chief of staff's stunning hair helped secure a free trade deal with a European leader, and that her mother once sent her a message when things weren't going well, saying, «Remember, even Jesus had people who didn't like him.»
More seriously, she urged lawmakers to take politics out of climate change.
«There will always be political differences,» Ardern said during her farewell speech, dressed in a traditional Maori cloak called a korowai. “But beyond that, we have what we need to make the progress we need to make.”
She also revealed that she never thought she was destined to play the role of prime minister, and that although she could' She hoped that by not controlling how her tenure would be judged, she would demonstrate that anyone can be a leader.
«You can be restless, sensitive, kind and carry your heart on your sleeve,» she said. «You can be a mother or not, you can be an ex-Mormon or not, you can be a nerd, a crybaby, a hugger, you can be all of that, and not only can you be here, you can be like me.»
Wearing a kakahu, the traditional Maori cloak, Ms Ardern hugged new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins. Photo: MASANORI UDAGAWA/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Ms Ardern was greeted with applause from lawmakers from across the political spectrum and a rousing performance of several Maori indigenous songs.
Later this month, she will begin a new unpaid role to combat online extremism as Special Envoy for the Christchurch Call, an initiative she launched with French President Emmanuel Macron in May 2019, two months after an armed white supremacist killed 51 people at two mosques in the New Zealand city Christchurch. .
She also announced that she will serve on the board of trustees of The Earthshot Prize, an environmental charity founded by Prince William.
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