Jacinda Ardern back at New Zealand’s helm with newborn in tow

The Guardian, UK: New Zealand’s prime minister has returned to the capital as she prepares to jump back from maternity leave into politics.
Jacinda Ardern this week officially ended her six weeks off, during which she gave birth to daughter Neve.
Stepping off her flight at Wellington airport with partner Clarke Gayford and their daughter on Saturday, Ardern was welcomed at the arrival terminal with a cheer from onlookers and an impromptu song from the school choir waiting for her.
Briefly addressing waiting reporters, the prime minister said the family would be spending the next few days preparing New Zealand’s official prime-ministerial residence for a baby. “I guess [it’s] the first time it’s probably had a little one there. We’ll be pulling together all of the second-hand furniture our friends have passed on to us for Neve,” she said. “It is an old home, but it is a very warm home.”
As Ardern spoke, students from Nayland College in Nelson – waiting for their flight to Melbourne for a music festival – began to sing, later grabbing a photo with the PM.
“We were going to do some busking, but then we saw the prime minister was here,” the school’s head of music, Nigel Weeks, said.
Ardern also said New Zealanders were “hostile” to the views of Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux – two far-right speakers who toured Australia but had to cancel their event across the Tasman.
The controversial Canadians canned their show in Auckland on Friday night after the owners of the private venue they had booked pulled out.
Ardern was asked about Molyneux’s claim New Zealand was “hostile to free speech”.
“I think we’re hostile to their views,” she replied. “They’re here because there were no grounds to block them being here. But that does not mean we welcome their views.