Ardern’s travel in line with Key’s
PM’s trip this week will be her 14th since taking office at end of 2017
When National Party leader Simon Bridges called Jacinda Ardern a “part-time Prime Minister”, he copped an awful lot of criticism on two counts.
First he was accused of using a phrase that reeked of sexism. Many working mothers are part time and his comment was seen as implying Ardern was not as committed to the job as she could be.
Second, Bridges chose to use that attack line when Ardern was en route to Tokelau — a trip that had quickly followed a high-profile trip she had to Melbourne where she was feted during a
Town Hall speech there.
Ardern has been accused of travelling too much, and not paying enough attention to domestic issues. That seemed to be the implication of Bridges’ attack.
But it is sometimes quietly suggested that Ardern hasn’t been travelling enough to build the sorts of relationships that need to be built with trading and security partners and in countries where new markets are being targeted.
Both criticisms are wrong. There is very little difference between her own travel and that of former Prime Minister Sir John Key at a similar time in the cycle.
Tomorrow Ardern is heading to Tuvalu for the annual Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) leaders’ summit, which will be her 14th trip since being sworn into Government at the end of 2017.
At the same point in the National-led Government, Key had undertaken 13 trips — his 13th being the Pacific Islands Forum in Port Vila, Vanuatu.
Both Key and Ardern attended important Apec summits within weeks of being sworn in as Prime Minister.
Key went to Apec in Peru in 2008 where the TPP trade deal was launched, and Ardern to Apec in Vietnam where the TPP was almost sealed, were it not for some stalling tactics by the Canadians.
New Zealand leaders almost always attend the annual summits of Apec, the Pacific Islands Forum and the East Asia Summit, and the biennial summit of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.
After the last Government campaigned for a seat on the United Nations Security Council, it has become more common for Kiwi Prime Ministers to attend leaders’ week at the UN in September as well. And the second half of the year is almost always busier than the first because it includes most of those multilateral events, PIF, UN leaders’ week, Apec and the East Asia Summit.