{"id":324262,"date":"2026-03-11T14:13:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T14:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/324262\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T14:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T14:13:13","slug":"dame-jacinda-ardern-and-grant-robertson-to-reunite-on-stage-at-dunedin-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/324262\/","title":{"rendered":"Dame Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson to reunite on stage at Dunedin festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cExpect laughter, candour, and the kind of conversation that can only happen between two people who have been through it all together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Festival organisers highlighted Dunedin\u2019s long literary heritage and its status as a Unesco City of Literature.<\/p>\n

Ardern will also appear at literary events in Wellington on April 15 and Auckland on May 17.<\/p>\n

Since leaving office, Ardern and her family have been based in Sydney<\/a>, where she has been involved in international advocacy work.<\/p>\n

She joined Law Zero\u2019s Global Advisory Council, focusing on human-centric artificial intelligence (AI).<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson is the current University of Otago Vice Chancellor. Photo \/ Ben Tomsett<\/p>\n

Ardern has also continued her work on public health initiatives, including administering the Matariki Fund, aimed at eliminating cervical cancer in the Pacific.<\/p>\n

Her return to New Zealand coincides with the release of the Royal Commission\u2019s final report<\/a> on the Government\u2019s handling of the 2021 Covid-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n

\"GrantGrant Robertson hugging Dame Jacinda Ardern after her valedictory speech as Prime Minister in 2023 at Parliament. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

The report found some restrictions, particularly Auckland lockdowns, were maintained longer than necessary, while acknowledging that officials made \u201cstrenuous efforts to make the right decisions.\u201d <\/p>\n

Ardern and Robertson accepted the findings, noting there were areas that \u201ccould have been better\u201d, while highlighting what was done correctly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cExpect laughter, candour, and the kind of conversation that can only happen between two people who have been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,13176,1975,21335,2947,33092,6788,5131,2740,2347,13175,6722,4486,111,43,139,1536,69,90,5428,415,7241,8205,9874,8986,5433,61,1533,102],"class_list":["post-324262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-ardern","tag-at","tag-conversation","tag-dame","tag-deputy","tag-dunedin","tag-festival","tag-former","tag-grant","tag-jacinda","tag-minister","tag-month","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-onstage","tag-prime","tag-publicly","tag-rare","tag-reunite","tag-robertson","tag-stage","tag-to","tag-will","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}