Latest New Zealander to move to Australia ‘for the moment’ is its ex-PM Jacinda Ardern

More and more New Zealanders, lured by higher salaries, economic opportunities and more sun, are moving to neighbouring Australia. Now one of New Zealand’s most recognisable citizens, former PM Jacinda Ardern, is among them.A spokesperson for Ardern said Thursday that she and her family were basing themselves in Australia “for the moment.” Ardern’s family had work there, the spokesperson said, without giving details. The announcement, which was earlier reported by The Guardian newspaper, came after speculation in the Australian news media that Ardern was mulling the move. Reported sightings of the former leader viewing properties for sale in a beachside neighbourhood of Sydney prompted news headlines. Residents of Gerringong, a relaxed coastal town south of the city, were surprised last weekend to see her at a local event.Her family’s decision has brought new attention to a migration trend: New Zealanders, disenchanted with a weak labour market and a sluggish post-pandemic economy, are leaving their country in search of opportunities abroad.More than 1% of New Zealand’s population left the country in the year ending in October, and half ended up in Australia — or “across the ditch,” in affectionate local terms.The trend has added to the long-time dynamic of sibling-like rivalry between the two countries, which are so closely bound that they allow citizens free passage to work and live between each other. Australia has a population of 28 million people, compared with around 5 million in New Zealand.Ardern, a star of New Zealand’s centre-left Labour Party, led the country as prime minister between 2017 and 2023. She took office at 37, the youngest woman at the time to head a national government, and was the first world leader in decades to give birth while in office when her daughter, Neve, was born in 2018. Ardern is married to Clarke Gayford, a television host.The former leader’s reputation for calm, compassionate governance found her global fans on the left, many of whom saw her as the antithesis to President Donald Trump and other conservative leaders. During her time in office, she steered the country through the Covid-19 pandemic, a terrorist attack on a mosque in the city of Christchurch and a deadly volcanic eruption. But her govt also faced political difficulties as voters grew frustrated with her handling of the economy and a housing crisis. Ardern resigned in 2023 and stepped back from domestic politics.Since then, she has been a trustee of the Earthshot Prize, a climate leadership award initiated by Prince William. In 2023, she held fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School and temporarily moved her family to Massachusetts. In 2025, she was appointed a fellow at Oxford University. “The family has been travelling for a few years now,” her spokesperson said, adding that being based in Australia brought the “added bonus of more time back home in New Zealand.”