Why should Ardern stay at home?

Was it only weeks ago we were celebrating as a country the fact that Jacinda Ardern could be both mum and prime minister at the same time? Yet, at the first sign of a workaround, the critics are out in force.

Ardern is being attacked for taking a separate air force flight to the Pacific Forum – at a cost of about $80,000 – so she can cut the visit short while still nursing baby Neve.

The argument seems to be that Ardern should stay home because of the cost. But you could always mount that argument with ministerial travel.

Prime ministers fly the flag for New Zealand overseas, and that always comes at a cost.

Those costs can be particular to a certain minister. When John Key holidayed in Hawaii, it was with a security detail in tow. That came at taxpayer expense as well, but it would have been quite wrong to suggest he do without.

We should also expect there will be times when a prime minister nursing a very young baby poses some – temporary – logistical issues.

Ardern made a commitment to be back at work after just six weeks on maternity leave. This is just an example of her making that work.

The Pacific Forum is of huge significance in our sphere of influence. The New Zealand prime minister attending is treated as a given. Ardern points out that had she not attended, it would have been the first time since 1972 that New Zealand was not represented by its prime minster.

In that respect we are different to Australia, which sees itself as more of a middle power. Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull had planned to attend (and Ardern had looked at hitching a ride with him), but his successor Scott Morrison has higher priorities (and as the architect of Australia’s refugee ‘‘solution’’ probably didn’t want to face questions about it over there).

Ardern’s trip has been cut short because baby Neve is still too young for the required vaccinations. In that respect, Nauru is a special case. The recommended vaccines include typhoid, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, rabies and influenza.

But Ardern will still be there for the leaders meetings and her schedule is punishing; she was due to depart at 2am today and is back at 4.30am tomorrow.

Ardern’s next trip, to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, won’t pose the same problem. Neve and partner Clarke Gayford will accompany Ardern, and the prime minister’s schedule will be gruelling.

But so, too, has been Ardern’s return to Parliament since maternity leave. Like many mums in the work force, she has just got on with it.

There seems to be a subtext to some of the commentary around Ardern, however.

In the case of Nauru, it was suggested she didn’t need to be at the forum because Foreign Minster Winston Peters could handle it and had done all the leg work for her anyway.

That is nonsense. The foreign minister is always in the advance guard at the forum to do the leg work. That is how it works. But it’s never been suggested previously that sending the prime minister is unnecessary when the foreign minister is already in place.

Or is Ardern seen as different because she is a woman with a young baby?

The Pacific Forum is of huge significance in our sphere of influence. The New Zealand prime minister attending is treated as a given.