Ardern wins world headlines again, but this time for being less than kindly with words enshrined on Hansard’s official record

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has once again won international headlines — but perhaps not in a way her colleagues would have  relished.   

Still,  the reports that raced around the globe have given foreigners a  fresh perspective of the NZ leader.

  As the NZ Herald reported, Ardern was heard calling the Act Party leader David Seymour an “arrogant prick” as she took her seat in Parliament yesterday afternoon, following questions in the House of Representatives.

Seymour told the media afterwards that the Prime Minister had apologised to him via text message.

The Herald referenced other reports.

The Guardian’s Eva Corlett called her “the latest leader to fall victim to a hot microphone” after US president Joe Biden and South Korea president Yoon Suk Yeol, who had also recently been caught out swearing on a live mic.

Corlett recalled that in January, Biden appeared to think his microphone was off when he called a Fox News reporter, Peter Doocy, “a stupid son of a b****” for asking a question about inflation, Corlett reported.

Associated Press’ Nick Perry called Ardern’s words “a rare blunder” for a leader known for her skill at debating and calm, measured responses.

The Telegraph’s Roger Maynard called Ardern’s remark, “the colourful turn of phrase”.

Meanwhile, Sky News Australia’s Joseph Huitson took a hit at Ardern and Labour government’s declining popularity.

“Ms Ardern is down to 29%, marking her worst approval rating since coming into office in 2017, and slowly bridging the gap for Nationals leader Christopher Luxon as preferred prime minister.”

Quoting the latest 1News/Kantar poll, Huitson reported

“… the Labour Party has dropped 1% to a 33% primary vote, behind the National Party – Labour’s main opposition – which now leads on 38%”.

“The results put Ms Ardern’s government at risk of losing the majority at next year’s election with the Nationals and ACT now projected to secure 64 MPs, more than the 61 required.”

Point of Order found these reports among the many others recording our PM’s characterisation of Seymour.  

Barron’s – a sister publication to The Wall Street Journal and a leading source of financial news in the US – took its focus off stocks, investments and markets developments to carry an Agence France Press report under the headline

Ardern Apologises For Swearing At New Zealand Rival

It noted:

The 42-year-old has been prime minister for five years, and has won favour worldwide for her management of crises and down-to-earth approach to politics.

She was one of the first prime ministers to become a mum while in office and has enjoyed sky-high approval ratings for most of her two-term tenure.

But with New Zealand expected to go to the polls in late 2023 and the cost of living skyrocketing, she is under increasing political pressure.

Support for her Labour party appears to be waning with the latest opinion polls showing them trailing the opposition party National by five percentage points.

In London, the Daily Mail carried the news under the headline –

Extraordinary moment Jacinda Ardern LOSES IT and calls political rival ‘arrogant p****’ in parliament – before sending an apologetic text referencing her MUM

• • • New Zealand PM lost her cool when replying to questions from David Seymour
    • She muttered an insult caught by microphones about the ACT Party leader
    • Ms Ardern apologised by text and noted her mum wouldn’t have approved

An under-pressure Jacinda Ardern was caught losing her temper as she called the leader of a major party ‘an arrogant p****’ in parliament.

The Daily Mail said Ardern lost her temper after Seymour hammered her with a series of questions in the NZ parliament, including one blatantly provocative query.

 Mr Seymour asked: ‘Can the Prime Minister give an example of her making a mistake, apologising for it properly and fixing it.’

 The question prompted a clearly upset response from Ms Ardern shortly before she muttered the insult.

The Daily Mail recorded Seymour’s accepting the apology and wishing Ardern a merry Christmas.

He later used the insult as a springboard to again hammer Ms Ardern in a media interview.

‘Some days I am a useless Māori, others days I am an arrogant p****,’ he said.

‘The apology we are really looking for is for New Zealanders worried about rising prices and ram raids.’ 

The YouTube recording which Newshub featured in its news report was too muffled for the Point of Order team to be sure about what the PM said.  

But we would never challenge the official record of parliamentary proceedings, to be found on Hansard:

David Seymour: Can the Prime Minister give an example of her making a mistake, apologising for it properly, and fixing it?

Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: There’s been a number of occasions where we acknowledge that we will not have perfect responses. We’ve openly said that, for instance, managed isolation and quarantine was something that was very difficult at the time and that there were people affected by it and that we would do things differently if we were ever confronted with that again. But I stand by the work that we’ve done as a Government over this last year and over this past term—we’ve always made decisions that we believe to be in the best interests of New Zealand at the time. [Prime Minister resumes seat] He’s such an arrogant prick