New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern admits she would prefer to be asked about her political agenda than her personal life after a "cringeworthy" interview on Channel Nine's 60 Minutes news program.
Ms Ardern's interview on Sunday night made international headlines for questions regarding the conception of her first child with partner Clarke Gayford and comments about her appearance.
Viewers criticised Australian journalist Charles Wooley for focusing on her pregnancy rather than her ambitious domestic policy to halve child poverty or her concerns with Australia's deportation stance.
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Queensland radio host Reg Roberts described Wooley's line of questioning as "bloody painful", adding: "Was interested in the Jacinda Ardern interview on 60 Minutes but he made it cringeworthy."
But in an interview on the ABC's 7.30 on Thursday, Ms Ardern was asked if she ever gets frustrated about the media's obsession with her personal life.
"I think you probably take that with a grain of salt," she said.
"In the current environment, I guess sometimes, what we do is trivialised a little bit.
"But I also accept my current position is unusual. I am only the second woman in the world, that I know of, as the second leader of a country to have a child while in office.
"So I accept that is unusual, I accept that would be reported on.
"But I would certainly love if I could trade a little bit off that coverage for some of our political agenda, that's for sure."
Ms Ardern added there was nothing new about the line of questioning in the 60 Minutes interview.
"I have become somewhat desensitised ... actually it didn't stand out to me particularly at all, in fact almost all of those questions I have been asked before," the leader said.
"That may say something a little bit about just the nature of questions that probably people in the public eye, but politicians as well get."
Ms Ardern finished by thanking the politicians that reached out to her and offered well wishes when the news broke she was pregnant.
The New Zealand prime minister arrived in Sydney on Thursday accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, cabinet ministers and a business delegation.
Ms Ardern and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will have a bilateral meeting in Sydney on Friday and will participate in an Australia-NZ leadership forum.
The fate of New Zealand's convicted criminals deported from Australia will reportedly be on the agenda when Ms Ardern and Mr Turnbull hold talks.
As of late January, there were 170 New Zealanders, including 17 women, in Australian immigration detention whose visas were automatically revoked following a December 2014 crackdown on foreign-born convicted criminals.
- With AAP
