New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern resigns after a popular run as prime minister

The Kiwi prime minister during COVID says she no longer has enough left in the tank

Today's expression: Overstay your welcome
Explore more: Lesson #546
February 13, 2023:

Jacinda Ardern became prime minister of New Zealand at age 37; she was the world's youngest female country leader. Her COVID policies were harsh, but effective, and she won high approval from New Zealanders. But after five years in office, she resigned, letting another minister lead her party into the next elections. Plus, learn the English expression "overstay your welcome."

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New Zealand says goodbye to Jacinda Ardern. She was the world’s youngest female prime minister

Lesson summary

Hi there everyone, I’m Jeff and this is Plain English lesson number 546. At Plain English, we help you, the English learner, upgrade your skills with lessons about current events and trending topics. The audio in this version is a little slower, so you can catch every word. If you’re really ready for a challenge, you can get the fast version as part of our membership at PlainEnglish.com. And the fast version is a fresh recording, and I record the lesson just as if I were taking to a native speaker.

JR is the producer of Plain English—he produces both versions. And he uploads all the resources for this lesson to PlainEnglish.com/546.

Coming up today: You’re learning English, and so today we’ll turn our attention to one corner of the English-speaking world that isn’t frequently in the spotlight. Jacinda Ardern was the world’s youngest country leader when she took over as New Zealand’s prime minister in 2017. Early in her term, she was extremely popular: “Jacinda-mania,” they called it. But she has recently stepped down—and not because she lost, not from a term limit, and not because of a scandal. Today, we’ll reflect on the Kiwi leader, who was one of the world’s most popular democratic leaders.

In the second half of the lesson, I’ll show you what it means to “overstay your welcome”—not something you want to do!—and we have a quote of the week. Let’s get going.

Jacinda-mania fades, and New Zealand gets a new prime minister

There’s a rule in show business: always leave them wanting more. Show business is another term for entertainment. So if you’re a comedian, an actor, a magician, a band, the rule is the same: leave the stage while the crowd still loves you. Leave them wanting more. Because that’s better than the alternative, which is overstaying your welcome .

The rule in politics seems to be the opposite. Country leaders often overstay their welcome, especially in parliamentary systems without term limits. Stephen Harper was prime minister of Canada for nine years. Tony Blair held the top job in the U.K. for a full decade. There are many good things you can say about Angela Merkel , but she didn’t leave them wanting more. She was Chancellor of Germany for 16 years.

So it came as a surprise that New Zealand’s young, popular prime minister Jacinda Ardern resigned her office, despite high personal popularity.

I have always had a lot of respect for Ardern. She’s just a year older than I am—she’s 42—and she became prime minister of her country at age 37—the world’s youngest female country leader. Less than a year after taking office, she gave birth to her daughter—and then took six weeks’ maternity leave. The prime minister of a country went on maternity leave for over a month: she handed her duties to the deputy prime minister for those six weeks.

New Zealand is a safe country that has not frequently confronted terrorism or mass shootings. But in March 2019, a gunman opened fire in a mosque in Christchurch, the country’s second-biggest city. Fifty-one people were killed—a devastating death toll. That this targeted Muslims, a religious minority, was also a shock in tolerant New Zealand.

Ardern responded with compassion for the victims. She visited Christchurch, talked to family members and first responders, and declared a period of national mourning. She wore a headscarf herself and said, “They are us,” describing the victims.

This was not an empty gesture : her words and actions were received as genuine in New Zealand’s Muslim community and around the world. A photograph of her hugging a Muslim worshipper was projected onto the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, in Dubai.

She backed up her words with actions. A month later, she helped pass new firearms laws, restricting semiautomatic weapons and assault rifles.

Then came COVID. New Zealand is an island nation, far away from many other places, so it had the luxury of responding differently than, say , European countries did. In the very earliest days of the international pandemic, March 23, 2020, Ardern made the decision to “go hard and go early.”

She asked New Zealanders living and traveling abroad to come home. She rallied her “team of five million,” referring to the five million people who live in New Zealand. There were harsh restrictions on movement, but they came with social support to prevent evictions and other hardships. Compliance was high. This was hard on New Zealanders living abroad: many were unable to return home for long periods of time.

But New Zealand did what many other countries hoped to do: they flattened the curve. With the help of their geography, they delayed the spread of the virus. Kiwis, as New Zealanders are called, avoided the worst of the early rounds of COVID, and got vaccinated in the meantime . Ardern’s leadership, and the sacrifice of New Zealanders, saved many, many lives.

Ardern was rewarded with a large majority in parliament in 2020, the first year of the pandemic. In her second term, she continued to confront COVID, she navigated strained relations with China, a major trading partner; and she joined sanctions against Russia. But her country wearied of COVID policies and started to sour on her Labour Party, though Ardern herself remains popular.

The next election will be in October of this year. At her party’s conference in January, she said she had found time for reflection and determined that she wasn’t the right leader for the party going into the next election: she would resign, letting someone else lead her party.

She said that being prime minister requires “a full tank, plus a bit in reserve for those unexpected challenges.” But she didn’t have a full tank anymore, and she said New Zealand deserved a prime minister ready to face the country’s next challenges.

In the last few years, New Zealand has seen an increase in political extremism, protests, and harsh online rhetoric. A lot of nasty rhetoric has been directed at Ardern herself. The country has also experienced high housing inflation: a lot of Kiwis cannot afford to buy or rent a home. New Zealand relies on labor from abroad, including temporary workers. But few were able to immigrate during the pandemic years, leading to a labor shortage (and higher prices for everything).

Gang violence has increased; homelessness remains a problem. High-profile crimes are up, too. Ram-raids involve people driving cars through shop windows at night—and then looting the shops. There were 500 of those in 2022.

“Jacinda-mania” has faded, but Ardern herself is still popular. It’s a different story for her party. For the first time in ages, the Labour Party is trailing its main right-wing opposition in the polls. With a vigorous campaign and fresh policies, Labour can still win later this year. But it will have to do so with a new leader, Chris Hikpkins. He was in charge of New Zealand’s response to COVID.

A good example

I know as an outsider you can’t get the full story—and I really don’t have much of an opinion on her domestic policies. But I have always thought she’s been a great country leader, a great example. Of course it helps to be the leader of a small country, rather than a big one with so many competing interests.

It reminded me of a good series on Netflix called “Borden.” It’s a political drama, but takes place in Denmark. It’s about the rise of a working mom as prime minister—totally fiction, but it’s good. There are a few seasons. “Borden” on Netflix.

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Expression: Overstay your welcome