More and more New Zealanders, lured by higher salaries, economic opportunities and more sun, are moving to neighboring Australia. Now one of New Zealand’s most recognizable citizens, Jacinda Ardern, is among them.
A spokesman for Ms. Ardern, a former prime minister of New Zealand, said on Thursday that she and her family were basing themselves in Australia “for the moment.” Ms. Ardern’s family had work there, the spokesman said in a statement, without giving details.
The announcement, which was earlier reported by The Guardian newspaper, came after speculation in the Australian news media that Ms. Ardern was mulling the move. Reported sightings of the former leader viewing properties for sale in a beachside neighborhood of Sydney, Australia, 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 labor market and a sluggish post-pandemic economy, are leaving their country in search of opportunities abroad.
More than 1 percent of New Zealand’s population left the country in the year ending last October, and half ended up in Australia — or “across the ditch,” in affectionate local terms.
The trend has added to the longtime 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 nearly 28 million people, compared with around 5 million in New Zealand.
Ms. Ardern, a star of New Zealand’s center-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. Ms. 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 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 government also faced political difficulties as voters grew frustrated with her handling of the economy and a housing crisis. Ms. 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, and was made a dame. 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 same year, she released a memoir, “A Different Kind of Power,” and was the subject of a documentary, “Prime Minister,” both of which offered behind-the-scenes insights from her time as a leader.
“The family has been traveling for a few years now,” the statement from her spokesman said, adding that being based in Australia brought the “added bonus of more time back home in New Zealand.”
Laura Chung contributed reporting from Sydney, Australia.
Isabella Kwai is a Times reporter based in London, covering breaking news and other trends.
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