Cam Slater: More of That Trademark Ardern ‘Kindness’

Jacinda Ardern’s catch cry and slogan during the Covid scare was “kindness”. Of course, she was everything but kind when she divided us into a ‘Them’ and ‘Us’ society. We were divided into those who took a particular medicine and those who didn’t. We were divided into those who wore masks and those who didn’t. Then there was the misery inflicted on NZ citizens by the MiQ lottery. This stopped New Zealand citizens who happened to be overseas from reentering their own country.

Now the consequences of that “kindness” are coming home to roost. While citizens were prevented from returning DJs and entertainers were flitting in and out as some sort of favoured group. Some of those stuck overseas by Ardern’s “kindness” had children while offshore. As a result, those children have a lesser form of citizenship – and their future children have no pathway to New Zealand citizenship.

Newshub can reveal some children born overseas while our borders were closed don’t have the same claim to be a Kiwi as if they were born here.

That was news to the minister who is promising a fix.

Locked out of her homeland and an ocean away from her family, Shannon gave birth to her daughter in December 2021.

“We ended up having our baby in Australia prematurely with a whole heap of complications and no family over there,” Shannon said.

She’d tried her luck in the managed isolation lottery and applied three times for emergency spots, but couldn’t get one.

Shannon had no idea giving birth overseas meant her child’s future choices might be impacted.

“We didn’t get the choice to choose that for our daughter – the choice was made for us.”

That’s because New Zealand has three levels of citizenship which determine whether your child can inherit it.

The first – and most powerful – is by birth. You’re a citizen, so you can pass that onto your child, wherever they’re born.

Another is by grant – you become a Kiwi through a citizenship ceremony. If your child is born overseas, they need to be registered.

The third is by descent – and that’s the issue here. Shannon’s daughter inherited citizenship and so her future children may not automatically qualify.

“Your child not being able to pass on their citizenship to their children if they have children overseas, which is a real possibility,” she said.

Lawyer Tudor Clee has clients who were forced to have children overseas

“Every single child forced to be born overseas now has a lesser level of citizenship than if they’d been born in New Zealand,” said Clee.

Because the parents are only Kiwis by descent, their kids may not be Kiwis at all.

“We’ve got this mess which is intergenerational and could take years to fix… this is a ticking timebomb for the Government.”

Barbara Edmonds, the new Internal Affairs Minister, wasn’t aware of the issue until told by Newshub.

Newshub

Where has Barbara Edmonds been? This has been known about and the Government warned about it for months if not years.

This is an unmitigated disaster of the Government’s own making. They made the rules, they enforced the rules, and now they’ve dispossessed people of what should have been their birthright.

And it is the children who will suffer – the very people that Ardern professed to want to help the most.

Jacinda Ardern might have run the surrender flag up the mast but Chris Hipkins was the Minister in charge when all this happened. The blame must be sheeted home to him.

It seems that the only legislation this Labour Government manages to pass are laws to fix screw-ups in other laws they enacted.

Ardern’s legacy, meanwhile, continues to grow negatively. Instead of being known for “kindness”, she is now becoming known for her cruelty.

Cam Slater is a New Zealand-based blogger, best known for his role in Dirty Politics and publishing the Whale Oil Beef Hooked blog, which operated from 2005 until it closed in 2019. This article was first published HERE.