Kindle Notes & Highlights
‘What if we no longer see ourselves based on what we look like, what religion we practice, or where we live, but by what we value? Humanity. Kindness. An innate sense of our connection to each other. And a belief that we are guardians, not just of our home and our planet, but of each other. We are borderless, but we can be connected. We are inherently different, but we have more that we share.’
Jacinda
‘I always noticed when things felt unfair. Of course, when you’re a kid, you don’t call it social justice. I just thought it was wrong that other kids didn’t have what I had,’ she says.1 Outside of her studies and part-time job at the local fish and chip shop, she began to join human rights groups at school and push for change. An early act involved campaigning for girls to be permitted to wear long pants as part of the uniform at her secondary school, Morrinsville College. She won.
‘We’re all now putting each other first, and that is what we do so well as a nation. So, New Zealand: be calm, be kind, stay at home and break the chain.’6 In response to the prime minister’s rallying call, businesses around the country adopted a mantra of ‘be kind, stay safe’, encouraging customers to show positivity to one another. By acting early and decisively, New Zealand was able to flatten the curve of COVID-19, resulting in one of the lowest confirmed death rates per million people7 – all whilst adhering to Ardern’s call to exhibit patience, kindness and understanding.
‘What greater example of a nation is there than one which unites in the defence of our most vulnerable and, ultimately, in defence of our way of life.’
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a young boy gesture to me. He was shy, almost retreating towards a barrier, but he also had something he clearly wanted to say. I quickly crouched down next to him. He didn’t say his name or even say hello, he simply whispered, ‘Will I be safe now?’. What does it take for a child to feel safe? As adults, we are quick to make the practical changes that will enable us to say that such a horrific act could never happen again. And we did that. Within ten days of the attack we made a decision to change our guns laws and banned military-style semi-automatic weapons
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‘Kindness is that sense of being aware of the environment around you, the people around you and the community around you.’
At seventeen did you imagine ever that you would become prime minister? Until the day before I became prime minister I couldn’t have imagined becoming prime minister! And in part that’s because I’m a New Zealander and we are naturally quite a self-deprecating people, and part, if I’m honest, it’s probably because I’m also a women who looks more quickly at my deficits; the things that I’m not good at, rather than what I am. But either way, I never would have imagined as a child that I would end up doing a role like this, because I grew up in a very small town, and there are one hundred and
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think, if there’s anything that people need right now, is they just need to see human beings doing their best as leaders. And that means that from time to time you’ll stumble, and you should be honest about that; it means that people will see your failings and we should be honest about that too. People need authenticity, not, I think, some manufactured idea of what political leadership is meant to be.
If you were to summarize the qualities that have underpinned your path to this leadership role, that you think have been most important for you? Kindness, and not being afraid to be kind, or to focus on, or be really driven by empathy. I think one of the sad things that I’ve seen in political leadership is – because we’ve placed over time so much emphasis on notions of assertiveness and strength – that we probably have assumed that it means you can’t have those other qualities of kindness and empathy. And yet, when you think about all the big challenges that we face in the world, that’s
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I’m driven by empathy, but I want to make lasting change. In politics, particularly politics when you’re in a very small country, you know that within five minutes of leaving, that’s your time gone. People eventually won’t remember who you were or what your name was – and actually none of that matters – but if the things that you did, on behalf of other people, if they’ve endured, then you know you’ve made a difference. Then you know you’ve been successful.
‘Well, who are we to display anything other than love and kindness under those circumstances’, and that’s what New Zealand did.
What do you think the world needs more of? Just humans being humans, just finding our humanity again. Of course we’re a world full of diversity and we are full of difference, be it ethnic or cultural or religious, but actually in those moments of deep pain, in those moments of tragedy when you strip it all back, we all have a shared humanity and we just need to remember that more often. I think it changes our view of the world and the way that we try and do things if we just remember that, in amongst all of the difference, that exists.
I think leaders come in many different forms now, and they’re in our communities, and they are in our homes and, sometimes, they’re quiet and unassuming, but they leave a legacy, and they leave a mark on our lives.
‘Leaders come in many different forms now. They’re in our communities and they’re in our homes, and sometimes they’re quiet and unassuming but they leave a legacy and they leave a mark on our lives.’
Ardern joined the Labour Party as a teenager, and, after finishing high school, completed a Bachelor of Communication Studies in Politics and Public Relations at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand. After graduating, she worked in the office of then-prime minister Helen Clark before heading to London, England, where she worked as a senior policy advisor for Britain’s then-prime minister Tony Blair.
