I’ll only take six weeks’ leave, says pregnant NZ prime minister
JACINDA ARDERN, New Zealand’s prime minister, is likely miss out on her own scheme for extra paid parental leave, it was revealed yesterday as she announced she was pregnant with her first child.
Ms Ardern will become only the second leader in modern history to give birth while in office when she is due in June, but will not gain from her own policy to increase parental leave from 18 weeks to 22 weeks, as the scheme begins in July.
The 37-year-old Labour leader became the country’s youngest prime minister in more than 150 years last October after a shock election result in which she ended almost a decade of rule by the centre-right National Party.
She learnt she was pregnant days before she formed a coalition to become prime minister elect. Extended parental leave was her first policy.
The announcement that Ms Ardern and Clarke Gayford, her partner, are expecting a baby was celebrated in New Zealand as an “inspiration for a generation”. Ms Ardern said the baby was unexpected and she and her partner had been told by doctors that she could not become pregnant without “help”.
She plans to return to work after six weeks and her partner will be the “first man of fishing and stay-at-home dad”. “I’m under no illusion, it will be tough,” she told Radio New Zealand.
Her six weeks away from office will mean she passes on her leadership duties to Winston Peters, her deputy prime minister and the head of the New Zealand First party. The staunch nationalist and social conservative said yesterday: “Ours is a novel coalition in many respects and the prime minister’s announcement only reinforces its unique qualities.”
Ms Ardern, who spent time in Britain working as a policy adviser in Tony Blair’s government, will become only the second modern leader to give birth in office after Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan’s prime minister, whose daughter Bakhtawar was born in January 1990.
Her introduction of the extra paid parental leave, which will increase to 26 weeks in 2020, was one of Ms Ardern’s first decisions after becoming leader.
Mr Gayford, a television presenter, will be classed as the primary caregiver and will reportedly be entitled to the benefit but not to the additional four weeks of pay.
He met Ms Ardern in 2013 after writing to her of his concerns about a privacy issue. Soon after, he took her on her first fishing trip and they have been partners for about four years.
The announcement prompted widespread support, including from Bill English, the opposition leader and a father of six. In an article headlined “Jacinda Ardern having a baby is an inspiration for a generation”, Michelle Duff, a columnist for the Stuff website, said it showed that mothers could hold any job. “This is an amazing day for men and women everywhere,” she wrote. “Maybe Ardern’s own experience [will] usher in an era of improved workplace rights … It shows little boys there are other ways of being men, too.”
Others suggested that the announcement was in line with New Zealand’s proud history of promoting women’s rights. In 1893, it became the first country in the world to allow women to vote.