Jacinda Ardern Wasn’t Bothered by "Sexist" Australian Interview Questions

Last night New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had the dubious pleasure of appearing on Australian current affairs show 60 Minutes, where interviewer Charles Wooley treated her and partner Clarke Gayford fairly… casually. At one point Wooley called Ardern “attractive,” and later on attempted to ask when her baby—Ardern recently made headlines for announcing a pregnancy in the first months of her tenure as PM—was conceived.

But while both Australian and New Zealand outlets have criticised Wooley for being sexist, Ardern has in her usual extremely chill way brushed off the interview and implied his questions didn’t strike her as out of the ordinary.

“I haven’t had a chance obviously to watch the show as it aired in Australia last night,” she told reporters this afternoon during a post-Cabinet press conference. “It’s fair to say that actually I can’t recall anything from the interview that particularly stood out for me… and you’re assuming that I haven’t been asked by New Zealand media that question before as well.”

Ardern went on to clarify that Kiwi journalists had asked her similar questions about her pregnancy. She said that the 60 Minutes interview hadn’t felt more uncomfortable than any other.

“At the time [that question] threw me a bit… but I wasn’t particularly offended or phased by the interview as a whole,” she explained. “It didn’t stand out for me in a way that the headlines suggested. I had to look back and be reminded of the questions.”

She said that the Australian and New Zealand continued to be strong and that Australia is “our strongest ally”.

Ardern has spoken out against sexism in the past, and in general seems much more interested in addressing structural issues than she is personal ones. For example, she has stated that her party won’t rest until New Zealand has pay equity.

Her pregnancy has been hailed all over the world as a feminist victory. Perhaps excusing Pakistan's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, she is the most prominent world politician to be pregnant while in office.

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