Jacinda Ardern has publicly acknowledged she is "very mindful" the "huge" weight of public expectation on her not only as a political leader, but as a personality Kiwis are captivated by.
Speaking to 1 NEWS political editor Corin Dann after 100 days as Prime Minister, Ms Ardern said she is wary of relaxing in the glow of whatever poll popularity she is enjoying in her new role.
"I am very mindful of the expectation, and it is huge. It comes with actually Labour governments often but I feel the extra weight of it personally," Ms Ardern said.
"It's probably the reason why I'll never ever be presented with a poll, good or bad, that will make me feel comfortable.
"You know, because I have the sense that everything in politics is fragile.
"I'm a member of the Labour Party and I've seen a number of really solid, good leaders come and go.
"So regardless of whether the public place expectation on me, I'm doing a pretty good job of placing it on myself."
The wide ranging interview with Dann touched on many of the challenges of compromise to push through policy, that is acceptable to all three coalition partners.
One policy in particular that was raised as a back down of sorts was the Labour-led Government's amendment to the Employment Relations Act 2000, on January 25 this year.
Dann raised the fact that the Labour party had wanted to completely scrap the 90-day trial period for all New Zealand employees.
But, a compromised policy had instead been presented to scrap the 90-day period for all businesses with over 20 employees.
"With 90-days we went in with a clear view of what we wanted to achieve, but everyone will have seen that we didn't deliver the majority required to be able to deliver anything on our own," Ms Ardern said.
"What I think is also accepted is we still are making advances that are a vast improvement on the status quo."
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