Reuters/HBO
- New Zealand’s leader, Jacinda Ardern, returned a NZ $5 bribe to open a dragon research lab from an 11-year-old called Victoria.
- First posted on Reddit by Victoria’s sister on Saturday, the letter from the Prime Minister thanked her, but said New Zealand didn’t have any plans to study dragons.
- Victoria had asked Ardern if the government could make her telekinetic and let her train any dragons they were aware of, the sister said.
- Ardern returned the NZ $5 ($3.20) note which Victoria included to sweeten the deal, but added: "I wish you all the very best in your quest for telekinesis, telepathy and dragons."
- Ardern hand-wrote a note at the end of the letter, which said: "P.S. I’ll still keep an eye out for those dragons. Do they wear suits?"
- Visit INSIDER’s homepage for more stories.
Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, tactfully declined the suggestion of a 11-year-old girl who asked her to open a government-funded program for researching dragons.
Ardern also returned a $5 note the girl sent as an apparent bribe to sway Ardern’s thinking.
She thanked "Victoria," for getting in touch on April 30, but said the government wasn’t quite ready to study dragons, or telekinesis, her other request.
The letter was first posted to the r/NewZealand Reddit page on Saturday by a user identifying herself as Victoria’s older sibling.
It said: "Received this in the post, turns out my littlest sister (11yo) tried to bribe Jacinda."
"So it turns out, she wanted the government to make her telekinetic when they are able, and wanted to find out what they know about dragons and if they had found any yet, so she could train them," the sibling added in the comments.
HBO
Victoria recieved a reply from the Prime Minister’s office on April 30. Government officials confirmed to the BBC that the reply is genuine.
"We were very interested to hear your suggestions about psychics and dragons, but unfortunately we are not currently doing any work in either of these areas," Ardern wrote.
"I am therefore returning your bribe money, and I wish you all the very best in your quest for telekinesis, telepathy and dragons."
Phil Walter/Getty
The Prime Minister added a hand written post script at the end of the letter, which said: "P.S. I’ll still keep an eye out for those dragons. Do they wear suits?"
Ardern, who often personally replies to letters from New Zealanders like Victoria, is popular in New Zealand and further afield.
Derek Henderson/Office of the Prime Minister of New Zealand via Getty Images)
In early May, an Australian poll found that Australia’s most-trusted politician was Ardern, even though she is from a different country.
Pollsters Millward Brown asked 1400 Australians to rate 12 politicians in six areas: relevance, integrity, shared values, commitment, affinity and follow-through.
Ardern also read out some of the letters she’s recieved as Prime Minister at the New Zealand Labour Party conference in November 2018.
Ardern said one seven-year-old wrote to ask: "Dear Jacinda, can you change the boring grey toasters into bright colours. Perhaps you could pass a law?"
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Source: Business Insider – feedback@businessinsider.com (Bill Bostock)