New Zealand’s best-known political leader is moving to Australia.
Jacinda Ardern, the former prime minister, confirmed on Thursday that she and her family were relocating to Sydney, becoming the latest in a wave of Kiwis crossing the Tasman sea.
Each year tens of thousands of New Zealanders become “trans-Tasman” immigrants. They have included the actor Russell Crowe, the director Jane Campion and the country singer Keith Urban, a dual citizen who has since moved to Tennessee.
The Gladiator star Russell Crowe moved to Australia aged four but remains a New Zealand citizen
ALAMY
Ardern, 45, confirmed the move after her family were seen house-hunting in Sydney.
Ardern was the world’s youngest female head of government when she became prime minister aged 37 in October 2017. She won international acclaim for her leadership after the massacre of 51 worshippers at two Christchurch mosques in 2019, and was re-elected in 2020. While in office she gave birth to her daughter, Neve.
When Ardern resigned in 2023, she said she lacked the energy to seek re-election. “I know what this job takes and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. It is that simple,” she said.
Her move is likely to intensify concerns that New Zealand is in serious decline, losing talented people to a country where wages are usually higher.
Official figures show 73,900 New Zealand citizens departed in the year to August 2025, up from the previous record of 73,300. Sixty-one per cent moved to Australia, where New Zealand citizens are free to live and work for as long as they like. A direct pathway to Australian citizenship was opened in 2023 for New Zealanders who have lived in Australia for four years.
The exodus may become an issue in the November general election. Ardern’s successor as Labour Party leader, Chris Hipkins, has criticised the centre-right coalition government for the numbers leaving in search of higher wages and a better standard of living.
Ardern in 2022
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN/GETTY IMAGES
Since her resignation in 2023, Ardern has spent much time in the United States, after taking up dual fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Ardern’s spokesman said the family “had work” in Sydney and moving there “brings the added bonus of more time back home in New Zealand”.
Ardern is also on the board of Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, and last year released her memoir, A Different Kind of Power.