PM to take family to the UN
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will be taking baby Neve with her all the way to the United Nations in New York.
In one of her first interviews on her return to work yesterday, Ardern revealed she will attend the United Nations General Assembly meeting in late September, where she is sure to give a speech to the assembly as a new prime minister.
She will be taking partner Clarke Gayford and her daughter Neve, who will be about three months old at that point. This will be Neve’s first trip overseas.
‘‘Perhaps fittingly the programme for [the meeting] is focused on things like women, children, and climate change – very strong themes in those areas,’’ Ardern said.
Gayford would be on hand to look after Neve while Ardern was busy with the huge amount of side-events and leader meetings that usually accompany global events.
‘‘Clarke will be joining us on that trip. You know that’s a necessity in those early stages to make sure that I can be present in all the parts of the forum I need to be to represent New Zealand’s interests, but also make sure that she’s well looked after.’’
Her presence with Neve at the event is likely to draw a lot of global media interest, something Ardern also touched on in the interview.
Speaker Trevor Mallard told the Parliamentary press gallery yesterday that he would kick out any accredited journalists who published photos or video of Neve outside of one specific section of Parliament – even if she was just in the background of another shot.
Ardern said over her six weeks of maternity leave the media and public had respected Neve’s privacy well, and she hoped that would continue.
‘‘The amount of privacy that we’ve been given and she’s been given has warmed my heart,’’ Ardern said. ‘‘Because there’s every chance that people could have been outside my house or followed us and that hasn’t happened.
‘‘That’s just proven to me what I always believed to be true: We’re not the UK, we’re not Australia, we’re New Zealand and we do things differently.’’
Ardern is moving Neve down to Wellington and the Prime Minister’s official residence of Premier House for at least the first six weeks of being back on the job.
‘‘I’m coming back midway through a sitting session so I’ll be relocating to Wellington,’’ Ardern said. ‘‘I tend to come and go a bit more when it’s just me. But now we have Neve we’ll try and stay put just for a little while to just make it little bit easier travelwise.’’
She still expected to be spending plenty of time in her Auckland electorate of Mt Albert however, where she usually lives.
‘‘Obviously I’ll be in the House when I’m needed, coming back to the electorate as well. But a little bit less of that bunny hopping just for the first six weeks or so.’’
Despite the strict rules the Speaker had placed on photos of Neve in Parliament Ardern said she would mostly be alone while actually on the precinct – understandable given Premier House is just five minutes up the road in Thorndon. ‘‘I’m a mum and I want to be a mum that has my family around me so when I’m in Mt Albert and I’m going to local events I’ll have my family with me.’’