The former prime minister spoke about the parallels between Kamala Harris’s campaign and her 2017 Labour campaign.

Former prime minister Dame Jacinda Ardern spoke on Wednesday morning (New Zealand time) at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The Global Progress Action Luncheon was organised by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a progressive think tank. It is a side event at the convention; it was not televised and was held in a hotel conference room rather than the main venue, the United Centre.

The luncheon was titled “Healing the Nation—Purposeful Policies for the Next Administration”, and featured former prime minster of Sweden Magdalena Andersson, MPs from Germany and the Netherlands and some US political figures.

Ardern spoke for 15 minutes in a Q&A with moderator Patrick Gaspard, a prominent Democratic strategist and former ambassador to South Africa. Here’s what she said.

On the parallels between the Kamala Harris campaign and Labour’s 2017 campaign

“No one will know what it feels like to be Kamala Harris right now. What I do know, from my own relatively small experience from a country of five million people, is that seven weeks out from an election in 2017 I was the deputy leader of the New Zealand Labour Party. We were in opposition, and my boss came to work one day and he quit, and then he nominated me to run in the election seven weeks later. 

“To give you a little flavour, the billboards with his face on them were already out there with me dutifully standing next to him as his diligent deputy. Some people thought there was no way we’d be able to reorganize our campaigns, so they just got a box cutter and they cut him out and just left me there. I’ve been walking around the streets of Boston, where I live at the moment, and seeing old [Biden-Harris] campaign signs that are folded over the top, so you just see ‘Harris’, so I’ve been thinking a little bit about what it feels like in those moments.”

On the economies of care

“For me, it came down to the simple fundamental question: Do women have enough choices in their lives when it comes to work and to childcare, or both? Are the decisions I’m making based on financial insecurity or genuine choice? The answer, unfortunately, for far too many women in New Zealand, was that financial insecurity was driving that decision making. 

“When it came to women and financial security, we thought about what we could do in our first 100 days. We did things like increase paid parental leave to six months straight off the bat, we introduced a tax credit for children when they are born, we also wanted to ensure that there was greater financial support for those on low incomes. Acknowledging that study and the education of children is so influenced by the education of their mothers, we made the first year of university free. In those first 100 days, we showed a direction of travel, while acknowledging it would take time, but that was our destination.”

On progressive messaging

“I think the real trick for us as progressives is saying: How do I share a vision message, whilst also acknowledging that change takes time, investment, and work?

“Nothing’s that quick in politics, and unfortunately, when you’ve got quite a disenfranchised and disillusioned voting public, trying to pitch hope and optimism and vision whilst delivering at pace is very difficult in a country of 5 million, let alone a country of over 300 million.”

On change and fear

“We know that as humans, change is very closely linked to fear. And it’s very easy, if you’re a politician who wishes to capitalise on that emotion, to attach change and fear together.

“I think it is a matter of looking for those issues where there is a moment to build consensus and not being afraid to reach across divides on those issues where we want long term certainty about our destination.”

On positive campaigning

“I think people crave politics being done differently. It’s not just about what we present and what our policy agenda is, but how we do it. I remember when I found myself in that first press conference [as Labour leader], not expecting that morning to be the leader of the New Zealand Labour Party and launching a political campaign, I was asked about how we would campaign, and I was very explicit that we were going to run a positive campaign. 

“There’s a New Zealand saying that we were going to play the ball, not the man. It’s very old fashioned, it’s a rugby analogy. It means we’re going to play the game based on ideas, not based on personality and attacking one another. We wanted to do politics differently, and I think people are craving that kind of change.”

On the opportunities for women in politics 

“In New Zealand, someone else carved the path for women to lead. My daughter asked me last night, “Mummy, are boys allowed to be prime minister in New Zealand?”. She knew that there was one, but she was just asking. She said, “how many have there been”? And I did the math – there have been 42 prime ministers and only three of them have been girls, and she was shocked. The point is, I was not the first, so I never questioned that I could be a female and in a leadership position.”

On empathetic leadership

“What I did question was, could I be an empathetic leader? Could I be a sensitive leader? Could I be someone who was often moved by the encounters I would have with people publicly? Could I be a leader as a worrier, someone who overthinks, and can get a bit on the anxious side? Could I be that kind of leader?

“I do think that there’s a place for empathetic leadership, now more than ever. I think we need to support those leaders who have that ambition of doing politics differently, because I think people crave more of that kind of leadership.”

On optimism

“Politics can be a lonely place. It can feel like no one knows exactly how it feels to be there in that position except those who are in at that time. The Field Fellowship reminded me there are fantastic people who are motivated by all the right things, by the idea of just improving people’s lives. Now, unfortunately, over the years, some of the voting public have seen politicians who have not been motivated by that, and as a result, the expectations have changed. Our job is to lift the sights and expectations of voters, again, not just to be optimistic, but to expect better, and then in turn, for politicians to deliver better. 

“I have seen a countless number of politicians who want to do just that, and who are still out there leading the charge. We just have to make sure that they get enough of a platform that people see it, and I think that’s when we’ll create huge momentum for change, and we’re seeing some of that hopefulness, that optimism, right here in Chicago and in the United States.”