Wendy Geus: A Fly in Ardern’s Censorship Ointment

Jacinda Ardern’s censorship plan has been stymied by Elon Musk’s U-turn on his Twitter purchase. His U-turn was timely, as one commentator has labelled Ardern “the acceptable face of tyranny”

After slaying them all on her recent overseas trip, including sipping bubbles with Justin at altitude, Ardern is finding back home that her own subjects are not so easy to tame. This is seen in her party dropping to 29.5% in the September Roy Morgan poll (Andrew Little stepped down when Labour reached 30% in 2017, but I digress). These numbers would allow National and Act to govern alone, just.

Kelvin Davis being “too personal” (quote Ardern) in his racist outburst to Karen Chhour, to avoid answering a question; loud opposition to Willie Jackson’s merger of TVNZ and RNZ (Chris Luxon has labelled it ‘insanity’) and to the job tax are examples of the pushback she is encountering back home.

On the plus side, she has local media ignoring her inflammatory, radical UN speech, which international media including Daily Mail commentator Dan Wootton is aghast at, calling it ‘nothing less than dangerous’; the UK Spectator calling her ‘an agenda driven autocrat’ and Fox News, “an authoritarian.”

With Ardern in full flight throwing about phrases like ‘weapons of war’ — her definition for dissent from the right (opinions she disagrees with), which she wants to expunge from the face of the earth — British commentator Neil Oliver believes Jacinda Ardern has become “The acceptable face of tyranny”.

That sent chills down my spine as his pronouncement struck a nerve.

When Ardern refers to “Light touch approaches to disinformation” she is like a stuck record with her obsession with dissent from the right against her ideas. Disinformation and misinformation are simply her euphemisms for dissent. Remember she was the ‘one source of truth’ over Covid (LOL).

Her refusal to call Kelvin Davis’s disgraceful bullying comments to Karen Chhour ‘racist’ (or stand him down) shows she is willing to excuse her own party’s behaviour, even though it fits her (literal) weapons of war description: words that can hurt.

However, only words that oppose her own agenda and beliefs count as “disinformation”. She is relaxed about Davis’s and Jackson’s rhetoric; they are doing her dirty work, scaring off anyone who dares question government behaviour, including questions over John Tamihere’s questionable funding relationship with a government agency, which went unanswered with Davis’s deflection.

Corruption can rule unchallenged when questions are avoided or banned and free speech is shut down.

We know that Keir Starmer is more principled than Ardern, as he stood down his MP who made a racist comment to the new Tory Chancellor.

Ardern does not speak for me with her UN outburst, and it increasingly appears from the recent poll that thousands of New Zealanders are finding her autocratic style and separatist agenda distasteful. She is out of touch with ordinary New Zealanders.

I was filled with joy when I read that Elon Musk will go ahead with his Twitter purchase, as this is bad news for Ardern. This former Democrat sees them as too radical now and has indicated he will vote Republican. One of his main priorities is free speech, even for opinions that he disagrees with.

So, there will be no meeting of the minds with our little tyrant from down under on her Christchurch call, which has become a euphemism for the quashing of dissent.

It was good to see Luxon recently visiting some of the traumatised retailers affected by ram raids to hear their stories. Jacinda Ardern our Prime Minister has yet to visit any.

It’s time for Ardern to get down from her soap box and connect with New Zealanders suffering under her regime.

Wendy Geus is a former speechwriter and generalist communications advisor in local government. She now writes for the pure love of it. This article was first published HERE