Reappraising Jacinda

2 Oct 2025 • By Luke East

Jacinda Ardern at Fieldays 2019

A new movie came out in cinemas this past week – about Jacinda Ardern. And I think you should go and see it.

Jacinda Ardern takes a selfie at Fieldays 2019. Photo: Mary Anne Gill

Some friends and I went along to its opening night at the Regent in Te Awamutu on Friday and saw something few ever get to see but all should understand – the sheer all-consuming pressure of being in that office.

I’ve been involved in politics behind-the-scenes for over a decade now, I’ve seen behind the curtain, and yet some of ‘Prime Minister’ surprised me.

I first met Jacinda just a few months before the resignation of Andrew Little catapulted her to the top. We were both at a function at The Helm in Hamilton, and as I recall she didn’t think twice about standing on a barstool to make a speech or taking the time to pore over an old newspaper about Michael Joseph Savage with a fan, or pose for a selfie with me.

But on a number of occasions since then I have been a vocal, and perhaps not always fair, critic of hers – to some extent that’s relatively by-the-by in politics today, but should it be?

I think it’s time we reappraise the premiership of Jacinda Ardern. The final months of Covid-19 still loom large in the minds of many but considered against many of her predecessors, she governed at a time of somewhat unparalleled turmoil.

I remember the terrible attacks on March 15 and recall the pride I felt when Jacinda called it what it was, an appalling terror attack driven by hate. And then the speed with which she worked with all parties to pass rapid legislative change to ban the sale of military-style weapons in our peaceful land. She unified our country amidst that shared national grief and again during the first lockdowns, in a way that I don’t think we’ve really been since.

I was part of the Team of Five Million who stayed indoors and awaited the daily updates from the podium. After trying to crush Covid, the summer of 2020 was glorious… but then the vitriol began, and it hasn’t stopped since. That toxicity has spilled over into politics at all levels and has become a political cancer.

Jacinda Ardern at Fieldays 2019. Photo: Mary Anne Gill

Here was a Kiwi who had the courage to put her hand up and step into the arena, someone with a passion for people and a more servant-hearted style of leadership – and yet in 2023 she left the arena (and the country), partly because all the hate and vitriol left her needing sleeping pills and combatting nightmares.

Luke East

I only met her once while she was PM, despite being at several state occasions together, it was in a cafe. I was pondering what to order when I saw her protection squad encircle the room, and there she was stood directly behind me. She had far better things to do then wait behind me, so I let her go in front and she seemed so genuinely surprised – yet for me it was the most natural thing in the world.

Our leaders deserve respect, sometimes that’s letting them go ahead in the queue but other times it means allowing them their privacy, ensuring our civil discourse remains civil (I regret the fact that I have sometimes fallen short of that mark), and ultimately never forgetting that they’re human too and are simply trying to do their best.

Go see the movie and that is what you’ll see, our Prime Minister (regardless of whether you voted for her or not – I didn’t) trying to do what is best for everyone and in times of crisis trying to unify us and protect us. And doing it in a way that is pretty uncommon in our politics.

‘Prime Minister’ may not change your mind, but it might just open your heart.