And yet if you think about it, it isn't.
What Ardern is, and more and more have realised it, is all talk. As we discovered last week, with the court victim programmes that were announced by her with great fanfare, but when they turned out to be duds, she was taking no accountability for them whatsoever.
That is who she is and how she operates. Taking about the climate is the modern cool thing to do, but doing things about it? Not so much.
Do not forget she has never been to a COP, not one. Her office, by way of excuse, suggested it's not normal for leaders to attend regularly. That, of course, is simply not true.
But fortunately the government operates in a media environment where most of the more outrageous things they say aren't actually checked or called out.
You also have this issue, Anthony Albanese isn't going either. Why? Because he is called "Airbus Albo." He, like Ardern, has spent too much of his time out of the country.
Ardern's trip to Antarctic got more opprobrium than it did coverage. The hypocrisy of the carbon miles to go down, turn back, go down again ,stand looking at Shackleton's shed, for many of us was yet another example of a Prime Minister who is really interested in photo opportunities and not a lot more.
The cynicism that has grown around her travel schedule has now reached a point where clearly they have worked out any more air miles is simply not palatable and the closer it gets to election time the worse it will become.
Although I have never had a problem with a leader travelling, what we have seen from Ardern, as usual, is more noise than delivery. Telling the world we are open is fine, but it's clearly led to very little. The arrival numbers are a fraction of what they were and I suspect what they were hoping for.
So the climate, for now, will have to wait because a cost of living crisis and votes, trumps another soiree where little, if anything, gets done.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings.
Do not forget she has never been to a COP, not one. Her office, by way of excuse, suggested it's not normal for leaders to attend regularly. That, of course, is simply not true.
But fortunately the government operates in a media environment where most of the more outrageous things they say aren't actually checked or called out.
You also have this issue, Anthony Albanese isn't going either. Why? Because he is called "Airbus Albo." He, like Ardern, has spent too much of his time out of the country.
Ardern's trip to Antarctic got more opprobrium than it did coverage. The hypocrisy of the carbon miles to go down, turn back, go down again ,stand looking at Shackleton's shed, for many of us was yet another example of a Prime Minister who is really interested in photo opportunities and not a lot more.
The cynicism that has grown around her travel schedule has now reached a point where clearly they have worked out any more air miles is simply not palatable and the closer it gets to election time the worse it will become.
Although I have never had a problem with a leader travelling, what we have seen from Ardern, as usual, is more noise than delivery. Telling the world we are open is fine, but it's clearly led to very little. The arrival numbers are a fraction of what they were and I suspect what they were hoping for.
So the climate, for now, will have to wait because a cost of living crisis and votes, trumps another soiree where little, if anything, gets done.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings.
1 comment:
Having had to suffer a marae style homily from an immature girl at the last major climate meeting (sent there at great CO2 cost), I am surprised any bothered to attend this one. Again disproportionate time will be allocated to whingeing occupants of atolls whilst hundreds of millions are at great risk elsewhere and their numbers preclude absorption anywhere else. If the atoll dwellers limited their breeding to historic density any country could have absorbed them.
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