Opening her valedictory address in parliament, Ardern has harked back to her maiden statement, almost 15 years ago, saying she couldn’t quite believe she was in parliament at the time, and some of that sentiment remained throughout her career. She was, she said, a “conviction based politician”, but accepted she would be associated with events including the response to the Christchurch terror attacks and the Covid crisis.

The public gallery was packed with family, friends and staff former and present. Among the guests were former prime ministers Helen Clark and Sir Geoffrey Palmer, high commissioner to Australia Annette King and Ashley Bloomfield, who had stood alongside Jacinda Ardern in countless press briefings when he was director general of health. Sitting in the front row of the gallery directly across from Ardern were her fiancé, Clarke Gayford and daughter, Neve.

Standing alongside her longtime friend and political ally Grant Robertson, she recalled the “frenetic” days of 2017 when she was thrust into the leadership. The experience was like trying to steer a freight train, she said, and “being hit by one”. She added: “There was no time to be anything but myself.” Of her description during the campaign of climate change as her generation’s nuclear-free moment, she said, “I believed it then and I believe it even more now.” She urged parliamentarians, “please, take the politics out of climate change … New Zealand needs this place to provide them with the certainty that we will keep going.”

On child poverty, the overriding mission of her time in politics, she said, “I’m not here to say that everything is perfect now, it is not.” But changes implemented by her government had meant, she said, that “despite the severe economic conditions there are 77,000 fewer children living in low income households … Now, we just need to keep going.”

There were shout-outs to James Shaw, Marama Davidson and the Greens (with an aside on the “Squid Games” within the party), but no mention of Winston Peters or New Zealand First, Labour’s coalition partners during her first term as prime minister.

She described “a tough experience, personally” during the Covid crisis. She said: “I didn’t always get it right, but we were always motivated by the right thing.” She listed the names and paid tribute to “a core team of people I relied on through that period. You, and Alison Holst sausage rolls.”

Ardern described an encounter with a group of anti-vaccine protesters in Whanganui. She asked her driver to turn back and attempted to reason with them, to appeal to the science. “I was idealistic enough to believe it would make a difference. I had to accept I was wrong. I could not single-handedly pull people out of a rabbit hole. But perhaps, collectively, we have a role to play to stop them falling in in the first place.”

She called out to the New Zealand Muslim community for their response to the attacks of March 15 2019, saying she had come to understand that “countries don’t move on from tragedies. They become part of the psyche.”

Recalling the days before becoming leader, she said: “When I was 37 years old I was told there were a range of factors that meant I hadn’t been able to get pregnant, and stress was probably one of them. We decided to use the help of science, but as so many couples experience, that wasn’t straight forward. I had not long experienced a failed IVF round when I became leader of the Labour Party. I thought I had found myself on a path that meant I wouldn’t be a mother. Rather than process that, I campaigned to become prime minister. A rather good distraction as far as they go.”

She added: “Imagine my surprise when a couple of months later, I discovered I was pregnant. There is no question I have had incredible support to be the mother I wanted to be. From the office team who tried to get me home for story time, and Neve’s village who were there when I wasn’t.”

Ardern made special acknowledgement of her parents, Gayford (“thank you for keeping my cup full”), Neve and Robertson. She concluded by saying, “I’m sensitive, or as Maggie Barry once called me, ‘a sensitive petal’.” She once “went to Trevor Mallard for advice on how to harden up.” But, “I didn’t change. I leave this place as sensitive as when I arrived.”

She concluded by saying: “I cannot determine what will define my time in this place. But I do hope I have demonstrated something else entirely. That you can be anxious, sensitive, kind and wear your heart on your sleeve. You can be a mother, or not, an ex-Mormon, or not, a nerd, a crier, a hugger, you can be all of these things, and not only can you be here – you can lead.”

The official cash rate has risen to 5.25% – a larger rise than had been widely picked by economists.

The 0.5% jump is in line with the last few OCR rises, but many had anticipated the Reserve Bank would opt for a more conservative 25 basis point increase.

It brings the cash rate to its highest level since the heights of the global financial crisis in 2008.

“The committee agreed the OCR needs to increase, as previously indicated, to return inflation to the 1-3% target range over the medium term. Inflation is still too high and persistent, and employment is beyond its maximum sustainable level,” the central bank said in a statement.

“The level of economic activity over the December quarter was lower than anticipated in our February Monetary Policy Statement and there are emerging signs of capacity pressures in the economy easing. However, demand continues to significantly outpace the economy’s supply capacity, thereby maintaining pressure on annual inflation.”

Recent severe weather events such as Cyclone Gabrielle had led to higher prices for some goods and services, the Reserve Bank said. “This higher near-term CPI inflation increases the risk that inflation expectations persist above our target range.”

Donald Trump has addressed supporters following his court hearing earlier this morning, saying he “never thought anything like this could happen in America”.

The former president pleaded not guilty to 34 criminal charges in Manhattan after becoming the first US president to be arrested.

As was to be expected, Trump’s speech claimed that the charges brought against him were intended to derail his current bid for the White House. “As it turns out, virtually everybody that has looked at this case including RINOs and even hardcore Democrats say there is no crime, and that it should never have been brought. Never have been brought. Never brought it,” he said.

CNN has fact checked some of the typically bizarre claims levelled by Trump in their live blog here.

Māori-Jewish multidisciplinary musician Ana Chaya Scotney performs under the moniker Kōtiro, an affectionate nickname given to her by her late dad, meaning daughter in te reo Māori. In 2021, Scotney released her debut EP High-Def Multinational, synthesising the lonesome sounds heard within Te Urewera. That magical ngahere is the turangawaewae of Scotney’s dad’s people, Tūhoe. But via her mum, Scotney is also a member of the Jewish diaspora.

These seemingly disparate identities meld together in her music, which she sees as a conduit for exploring her beautifully diverse whakapapa. Scotney’s art is both an invocation of the stillness of Te Urewera and a self-exploratory outlet to dive into her complicated cultural identity.

Watch Scotney’s kōrero in the first episode of Amplified, out now. Made with support from NZ On Air.

Look it’s Wednesday and I needed some candy-coloured Margot Robbie in my life to erase the images of Trump in court.

Here’s the new trailer for Barbie, which legitimately might be the best film of the year? This trailer gives away absolutely nothing, though, so who really knows.

And another contender for film of the year: Beau is Afraid. It comes out this month and it couldn’t be more different from Barbie.

The Netflix series Sweet Tooth generated $66 million for New Zealand’s GDP during the filming of its first season.

The locally-shot, internationally produced series is about to launch its second season in the coming weeks. And now, a new report from Oxford Economics has taken a closer look at how much money was spent around the country by those working here on the show.

The report, commissioned by US and NZ screen associations, found total spending in 2020 was about $46 million. The majority of spending was in Auckland and Wellington, but most regions benefitted in some way from the show’s local production.

“Season One production spending engaged over 950 businesses all over New Zealand,” the report reads. “The cities that received the largest amounts in business spending were Auckland and Waitakere, both part of the greater Auckland
region, with a combined spending of over 85% of all business spending.”

Oxford Economics calculated that for every $1 million that the production’s own activities contributed to the economy, its expenditure supported a further NZ$2.1 million along its supply chain and through the payment of wages.

As with any production brought here from overseas, it was eligible for the Screen Production Grant. Sweet Tooth received $9.6 million in rebates from the scheme, largely outweighed by the amount of money it generated.

As Stuff’s Thomas Manch reports, the Defence Force will spend $60m in one-off payments to stop people leaving. The Defence Force has lost 30% of uniformed staff in two years. Chief of Defence Air Marshal​ Kevin Short said he personally hasn’t “seen numbers as high as this in my time as a senior officer, and that means, in the last 20 years.” ​

Manch writes that each defence staffer will receive a $3,661 payment in May. “The payments are on top of $10,000 provided to ‘strategically significant’ uniformed staff, approved by the government in December at a cost of $10m, and on top of the $90m for a three-year wage boost approved in the 2022 Budget.”

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Former US president Donald Trump has pleaded not guilty after appearing in the Manhattan Criminal Court overnight.

It’s an historic day: Trump has become the first former president ever to be arrested. It followed claims of hush money being paid during his 2016 campaign, which ultimately resulted in him securing the White House.

He faced 34 felony criminal charges.

Whether or not this will impact his latest bid for the White House remains unknown. Trump will likely attempt to use it to rile up his base, labelling it a “witch hunt” and evidence that he is being unfairly treated.

According to CNN, Trump’s voice was “measured” in court and he made eye contact with the judge while speaking. “He walked in slowly scanning the reporters in the courtroom,” the outlet reported.

Due to Trump’s high profile, he was not required to have a mugshot taken and nor did he appear in handcuffs.

After leaving court, the New York Times reported Trump did not make any comments to waiting media – which is fairly unusual for the former president.

His attorney, however, did comment. “It’s not a good day … I don’t expect this to happen in this country,” said Todd Blanche. “You don’t expect this to happen … to somebody who was the president of the United States.”

The next in-person hearing is set down for December.

“Going through her mind will be ‘can I hold it together’? Because it is emotional to walk away from life in New Zealand parliament.”

That’s former prime minister Helen Clark speaking on the valedictory that will today be given by Jacinda Ardern.

It’s the final day in parliament for the ex-Labour Party leader. She confirmed yesterday she’s moving onto two new roles: a special envoy role for the Christchurch Call and a member of the board of Prince William’s Earthshot trust.

Speaking to RNZ this morning, Clark, who was a mentor of Ardern’s and will attend this afternoon’s speech, said that a post-politics life can be very rewarding.

“When you look back at Jacinda’s five years, the truth is that two-and-a-half of it was taken out by the pandemic being the dominant event,” Clark said. “It doesn’t give you a lot of clear run on your economic and social policy agenda. Looking back there needs to be more recognition that the pandemic blindsided governments, communities, [the] public around the world.”

Asked about Ardern’s inability to push through some of her more complex policies, Clark acknowledged that there was a “complex coalition arrangement” between Labour and New Zealand First in the first term and then Covid-19 in the second. “It would have been a slower start to a reform agenda,” Clark said, diplomatically.

On the world stage, Ardern will be remembered for her empathy and her “incredible management of these ghastly crises”, said Clark, citing the mosque attack in particular.

But, Ardern was more than just a good communicator, Clark added. “If the question is ‘was she was just a communicator in an empty vessel’, the answer has to be decisively no.”

You can read more on Ardern’s legacy and final days in The Bulletin. And on a lighter note, The Spinoff’s Alex Casey and Tara Ward tuned into the two final interviews Ardern gave last night – and picked a winner.