PM secures White House meeting with US president

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is set to meet with United States President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris.

Ardern announced the visit to the White House, which is planned for Wednesday next week, while outside a function for New Zealand Harvard students at Loeb House on the Harvard campus. Ardern was at the prestigious university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, yesterday giving a commencement speech that she used to take aim at unhygienic ‘‘keyboard warriors’’ and disinformation.

Ardern also received an honorary degree from Harvard University.

Speaking about the upcoming White House trip, she said the aim was to continue conversations that took place in the US capital, with the war in Ukraine likely on the agenda.

She said discussions on trade and the role of the US in New Zealand’s economy would also likely take place.

Baby formula, which the US is experiencing a shortage of, is something that may also be discussed.

Ardern confirmed she would continue pushing for the US to join the

Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

‘‘We have been open about our view that the CPTPP is the best way that the United States can join and strengthen the economic resilience of our region.’’ Ardern said the White House visit was ‘‘incredibly important for New Zealand’’.

‘‘We are in a fraught time of global politics where we have a pandemic, a climate crisis, and conflict – so it is important to engage with like-minded partners like the US.’’ White House visits are rare events. This will be only the third such formal invitation a New Zealand prime minister has received in the past 20 years and the 26th in our history.

‘‘Make no mistake, this is a big deal and a continuation of the positive trend in our relationship. History shows that gaining an audience with the US president can open up new opportunities to co-operate internationally and enhance trade,’’ NZUS Council executive director Jordan Small said.

The prime minister is in the US on a trade trip and has been busy promoting Aotearoa New Zealand to the rest of the world.

Earlier in the week, she appeared on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert and spoke about gun reforms in the wake of the horrific school shooting in Texas.

She also did her best to sell New Zealand as an aspirational, clean, green and sustainable and climate-friendly place for Americans to visit.

Ardern’s meeting at the White House had been thrown into doubt by her positive Covid infection two weeks ago.

Officials on both sides have since been scrambling to try to get a new date in the diary, which has now been confirmed.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has used her Harvard University speech to take aim at unhygienic ‘‘keyboard warriors’’, disinformation and the role played by the big tech companies, while painting New Zealand as a progressive but imperfect nation.

Ardern, who gave the commencement address in the Harvard Tercentenary Yard in Cambridge Massachusetts, titled her speech Democracy, Disinformation and Kindness. She wore a ka¯ kahu and red and black – the academic dress of Harvard University from which she received an honorary law degree.

In the wake of the shootings in Uvalde, Texas, she received standing ovations at mentions of the gun reform and the decriminalisation of abortion, which is a hot political topic in the US since the leaked draft decision of the US Supreme Court arguing to overturn Roe vs Wade.

Littered with quaint New Zealand references to Hobbiton and knowing everyone in the country, Ardern said democracy can be taken for granted and people ‘‘wrongly’’ assume that ‘‘somehow the strength of your democracy was like a marriage – the longer you’d been at it, the more likely it was to stick’’.

While not mentioning any companies by name, Ardern built a case that there needed to be more transparency in how social media giants operate, how their algorithms work and what their responsibilities were.

Ardern took aim at ‘‘keyboard warriors’’. The prime minister, who receives a lot of abusive emails and social media posts, outlined what came to mind when she read abuse.

‘‘In my mind, when I read something especially horrific on my feed, I imagine it’s written by a lone person, unacquainted with personal hygiene practices, dressed in a poorly fitted superhero costume – one that is baggy in all the wrong places.

‘‘Keyboard warrior or not though, it’s still something that has been written by a human, and it’s something that has been read by one, too.’’

In a 25-minute speech that traversed the thoughts of her former high school history teacher, mistrust of experts, how MMP operates as well as the necessity of kindness, the overall theme was about how to keep democracy based on facts.

The comments were timely given recent events in the US, and Ardern’s own time as prime minister, in which she has dealt with the March 15 terror attack, which was livestreamed, and the conspiracy theory-fuelled occupation on the front lawn of Parliament in February and March.

Ardern also used the speech to push her progressive credentials. The biggest cheers from the crowd came after she mentioned how many women, Ma¯ ori and rainbow members of Parliament there were.

Ardern pitched herself to the Harvard crowd as something of an outsider, pointing out that she grew up a Left-wing woman in a conservative part of New Zealand.

‘‘I was raised Mormon in a town where the main religions were Catholic, Anglican and rugby.’’

But it was the intersection of democracy, debate and social media that Ardern kept her focus on. Although not mentioned by name, Facebook, Twitter and Google were most likely targets as Ardern talked about their responsibilities.

‘‘When facts are turned into fiction, and fiction turned into fact, you stop debating ideas and you start debating conspiracy.’’ Jacinda Ardern

‘‘That means recognising the role they play in constantly curating and shaping the online environments that we’re in.’’

She entreated ‘‘social media companies and other online providers to recognise their power and act on it’’, highlighting the Christchurch Call to Action, a signature foreign policy to reduce disinformation and hate speech online.

‘‘Let’s start with transparency in how algorithmic processes work and the outcomes they deliver. Let’s finish with a shared approach to responsible algorithms – because the time has come.’’

In a swipe at many of the conspiracy theories kicking around in the wake of Covid-19, Ardern hewed back to the importance of facts.

‘‘When facts are turned into fiction, and fiction turned into fact, you stop debating ideas and you start debating conspiracy.’’

It was an emotional event with about 8000 students graduating, the first commencement held with all students present since before the pandemic in 2019.