Top 44 Jacinda Ardern Quotes

I worked as long in a fish and chip shop as I did in Parliament. I’ve had particular experiences in politics, but they’re not my only ones, and they’re not the ones that defined me.

We know we’ve got a problem attracting to certain areas because of the cost of living, so we’re thinking about things from how do we ensure key workers have accessible and affordable housing; also, how do we attract people into teaching as well.

We will work hard to ensure New Zealand is once again a world leader, a country we can all be proud of. We said we could do this; we will do this.

I have a collection of ukuleles. I meant to graduate to the guitar, but I never did.

I credit the women who came before me and credit New Zealanders for welcoming me having a child… positivity outweighed negativity. I’m proud of the nation.

I definitely try not to get too caught up in putting too much of a gender or age assessment on everything – I’ve just got to get on with it.

I’ll be prime minister and a mum, and Clarke will be ‘first man of fishing’ and stay-at-home dad. I think it’s fair to say that this will be a wee one that a village will raise, but we couldn’t be more excited.

You can’t ask other people to believe you and vote for you if you don’t back yourself.

One of the criticisms I’ve faced over the years is that I’m not aggressive enough or assertive enough, or maybe somehow, because I’m empathetic, it means I’m weak. I totally rebel against that. I refuse to believe that you cannot be both compassionate and strong.

I’d say it was always in me – it’s just what’s required of you is very different in the moment that you become leader. When you’re part of a team, you defer, and you’re there to support your leader.

Back in the early days of my political career, I was called Socialist Cindy. I just hate the nickname Cindy.

Yes, we believe in globalization and trade, but we also believe in you being able to benefit from that more. For too long, we progressives have seemed like part of the system. We need to start thinking about whether or not it’s delivering for us now.

From a personal perspective, I am so looking forward to my new role as a parent. But I am equally focused on my job and responsibilities as prime minister.

Everyone knows that I have just accepted, with short notice, the worst job in politics.

The most difficult thing for us to do is to mitigate and offset our agricultural emissions. If we find a way to do that, then we’re showing other countries how to do it, too.

A lot of women in New Zealand feel like they have to make a choice between having babies and having a career or continuing their career. So is that a decision you feel you have to make or that you feel you’ve already made?

Things like promoting healthy behaviours, including nutrition and activity, and beginning that at school is so critical. We used to have a healthy eating, healthy action plan, elements of which really were dumped by the last government, so we’re trying to rebuild a bit of a program of action in that space.

The teacher crisis is something we are really worried about during the byelection in Mount Albert. I counted, across a month, seven teachers I identified just in my area who were all leaving – not the profession but Auckland.

Ultimately, I do want us to be a transformative government. I want, when we’ve left, for people to say we’re not just clean-green anymore: we’re carbon neutral, or we’re striving to be.

One of the things I’m so determined to preserve and restore is the fact that you can be the kid who was born in Dinsdale and find yourself working for the British government in the U.K., to being prime minister.

The challenging thing from a work perspective is just the range of things on any given day that you’re dealing with and making sure you have the head space to really be giving them the thought and consideration you’d like, too.

I’m the one who’s put myself into politics, so I’m the one that really should be wearing that front-facing role.

Taking on a leadership role doesn’t mean that you only have to be personally ambitious.

I am sure having a baby around a working environment changes the tone a little bit.

I am not the first woman to multi-task. I am not the first woman to work and have a baby – there are many women who have done this before.

I want to be a good leader, not a good lady leader. I don’t want to be known simply as the woman who gave birth.

I was there when Gordon Brown basically was taking over – so right in the middle of that transition. It was fantastic; I learnt a lot.

When you’re a bit of an anxious person, and you constantly worry about things, there comes a point where certain jobs are just really bad for you.

I hope for little girls and boys that there is a future where they can make choices about how they raise their family and what sort of career they have, which is based on what they want and what makes them happy.

Never feel like you have to tick all of the boxes on everything to be able to feel like you can do a job. I have heard it said many times before, and it is so true.

My grandma was a very traditional woman but, at the same time, would want me to have kids.

When I came into politics, I remember reading these scorecards of my performance, and I would routinely have these comments about not being assertive enough.

The fact I’m the third female Prime Minister, I never grew up believing my gender would stand in the way of doing anything I wanted.

I’m constantly anxious about making mistakes.

We aspire to be a government for all New Zealanders and one that will seize the opportunity to build a fairer, better New Zealand.

I have a partner who can be there alongside me, who’s taking up a huge part of that joint responsibility, because he’s a parent, too – he’s not a babysitter.

There’s probably a tendency to view power… to be either based on size or the size and power of your economy. I think New Zealand’s strength has always been using our voice on the issues that matter, and we’ve been consistent on it. There is power in that.

I thought, how do I reflect the generosity, particularly of all the iwi who gifted us names – and Te Aroha seemed to be a way.

I really rebel against this idea that politics has to be a place full of ego and where you’re constantly focused on scoring hits against each one another. Yes, we need a robust democracy, but you can be strong, and you can be kind.

This stardust won’t settle, because none of us should settle.

I would absolutely classify as being incredibly progressive the fact that I am the third female prime minister.

We’re looking to ways to build in the responsibility we have on climate change and the way that we approach, potentially, climate change refuges in the future amongst our neighbors.

How great it would be for us all to have the pride of knowing that we, as a country, are one of the best countries to be a child.

I refuse to be held up as some kind of superwoman because, in my mind, the superwomen are the ones who do it on their own. I have my partner, who will be a stay-at-home father. I will do as much as I can, but I will have a village around me, and there’s lots of people who don’t have that.