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The Soap Box: Baby Neve steals spotlight from PM in New York

Author
Barry Soper ,
Publish Date
Wed, 26 Sep 2018, 6:01AM
Jacinda Ardern holds her daughter Neve at the United Nations General Assembly flanked by her partner Clarke Gayford. Photo / AFP
Jacinda Ardern holds her daughter Neve at the United Nations General Assembly flanked by her partner Clarke Gayford. Photo / AFP

The Soap Box: Baby Neve steals spotlight from PM in New York

Author
Barry Soper ,
Publish Date
Wed, 26 Sep 2018, 6:01AM

It was bound to happen, the daughter was going to outshine the mother, although with Jacinda Ardern that wasn’t quite the case.

She’s still the novelty as the youngest world leader in the Big Apple at the moment.

Still, at her first United Nations Leaders’ week, four-month-old Neve has shone, she’s never been far from the action.

An appearance on the Today breakfast show saw Neve in the green room, out of the camera’s glare and much to the disappointment of the hosts beaming about the baby to their four million viewers.

If Ardern thought she was going to be talking about anything other than motherhood and her baby, she had another thing coming.

That’s all they wanted to know about, like how has motherhood changed her as a leader, on that one she hasn’t been a leader for long enough to find out.

Nevertheless, she reckons it makes her more compassionate and she’d like to see politics a more family-friendly place.

Well her buddy Speaker Trevor Mallard’s certainly seen to that, at least around Parliament.

And to think Ardern said of her telly appearances before leaving the country she’d want to steer the conversation towards trade – fat chance.

She was given an opportunity though when she was asked what she would say to Donald Trump if she had five minutes with him, rather than the grip and greet she had at his reception for leaders last night.

She told her gushy panel she’d talk about New Zealand which of course The Don knows all he wants to about the place given we turned him down for a casino licence after he spent a few windswept hours in Auckland in the 90s.

Bring the baby next time, the hosts implored Ardern, who said she sensed there was a bit of a disappointment.

But there was no such thing later in the day when she fronted up to speak in the General Assembly auditorium at the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit.

Baby Neve must now hold something of a record on several fronts. It takes us hours of paperwork and toing and froing to get an accreditation, the passport photo has to be exactly the right size and there’s the obligatory letter from the employer to show you’re there legitimately.

Well, Neve fronts up, the photo is of her lying on her side, sleeping in a bonnet with the name Ardern Gayford, Ms Neve Te Aroha.

Job description, New Zealand's First Baby. Yes, she’s accredited, surely the youngest delegate ever on the books.

And she immediately made good use of her accreditation, sitting on her dad’s lap at the official New Zealand delegation’s allotted space, listening to mum talk about how we should all emulate Mandela and learn from the selfless legacy he left us.

On the breakfast show, Ardern opined about politics and how the rulebook should be changed to make it more family friendly and not a place for egos and point scoring. She later insisted she was referring to no-one in particular.

Certainly, the United Nations has shown her it can be family friendly, which is about the only reform we’re likely to see this side of Neve being old enough to actually become a fully fledged delegate.

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