April 05, 2023
Wahine leadership missing Jacinda spark
Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa Packer says parliament will be a lesser place without Jacinda Ardern.
The former prime minister will make her valedictory speech at 5.50 pm today, and she will retire during the parliamentary recess.
Ms Ngarewa Packer says she has been an inspiration to other young women leaders and showed women leaders are great leaders.
“She was a leader who showed great empathy. I don’t think we’ll see another like her and certainly, in the House it’s obvious we don’t have this global woman leader, She was someone we could relate to. If it wasn’t what she said, it was how she said it and those are things that as a woman I would like to see more of,” she says.
Debbie Ngarewa Packer says the abuse directed towards Jacinda Ardern shows Aotearoa still has a long way to go in accepting women leaders.