You will get no admission that she and her Government got anything wrong during Covid, from what I can gather.
Now, this is my disclaimer - I haven't actually read the entire memoir just yet. But from what I've skim read and from what I've read and heard in the reviews, and what I've read and heard with her interviews promoting the book, if you are looking for her to admit that she got anything wrong at all during Covid, you're not going to find it.
The closest thing I found is on page 309, where she admits that she made 'imperfect decisions', but that's really underselling the massive balls-up that was our Covid response, wasn't it?
What you get instead is multiple excuses, heaps of verbal fluff to avoid answering hard questions and, regularly, the defence that we saved 20,000 lives.
Here's an example - she gave an interview to RNZ's Jessie Mulligan where he asked her about vaccine mandates, which we now know, of course, was a huge mistake that cost people their jobs simply because they wouldn't get the jab in which the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Covid said damaged 'social cohesion'.
Would she agree with that, he asked.
She said she wouldn't argue with their findings. He then asked her, did vaccine mandates save any lives?
She said - she's not the one that can answer that question for you, although apparently she can tell you that she did save 20,000 lives, she just can't talk about this particular instance.
And then she goes on to say that the Commission did also say that vaccine mandates were important in areas like healthcare and so on, and we're relatively limited, but again, I won't argue with their findings.
So, not a yes, not a no - and definitely not an apology.
Now, I don't actually know why I was expecting anything else from her. I mean, this was a feature of Jacinda during Covid.
She would never say she did anything wrong, which is why it got worse and worse as she barrelled full steam ahead in the wrong direction at times - because apparently going full steam ahead in the wrong direction was better than admitting she was headed in the wrong direction.
And of course she got things wrong. I mean, anyone would have. She made thousands and thousands of decisions over multiple years. She would 100 percent have got at least one of those decisions wrong, do you not think?
It would be nice just to hear her admit it, because I think it would help some of us - and I'm talking about me here - to forgive her.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show HERE - where this article was sourced.
28 comments:
"309 pages". Quelle horreur. But I am looking forward to the New Zealand stage of her world book tour.
I will never forget, and I will never forgive Jacinda, NEVER.
I was at Covid national HQ and the failure of DPMC to ensure balanced advice to Cabinet was astounding. It was clear that despite the need to have a balanced approach (health, economic, social) which we advocated for, Cabinet only listened to Health - and the really screwed up parts of Health at that.
For christ sake do NOT BUY her book. You are supporting her.
Heather it's irrelevant if you have read her book or not, we all lived under her regime. I view Ardern as the face of pure evil. The destruction she let loose on this country is unacceptable. She needs to be held accountable.
The fact she is effectively a refugee from her home country basically says it all.
She can’t come home, she is way to toxic.
RNZ and the Jacinda arse kissers can say what they want, the facts speak for themselves.
Heather nails what so many have felt but few in mainstream media dare articulate: Jacinda Ardern’s post–Prime Ministerial narrative is less a reckoning with leadership than a self-styled redemption tour. Her favourite buzzwords — “kindness,” “empathy,” “imposter syndrome,” “shared values,” “global cooperation” — have become a rinse-and-repeat script polished for elite audiences. From Harvard to Yale, and now her memoir, it’s the same word-cloud served with slight variations.
There’s no real accountability, just poetic ambiguity: mistakes become “imperfect decisions,” coercive policies are reframed as “empathy in action,” and vaccine mandates that fractured communities are justified by the talismanic claim of “20,000 lives saved.” Her philosophy, once novel, now sounds like a looping audio track — comforting to some, but grating to those still picking up the pieces from her decisions.
Heather’s final point is the most potent: the public doesn’t begrudge leaders for getting things wrong — they begrudge them for pretending they didn’t. And in that sense, Ardern’s refusal to engage with the real social costs of her leadership is not just disappointing — it’s deeply unserious.
The Guardian’s recent interview with Jacinda Ardern — conducted with reverent awe by its editor-in-chief Katharine Viner — reads less like journalism and more like a canonical hagiography of Saint Jacinda of Davos.
It begins promisingly enough, briefly acknowledging that Ardern isn’t quite the messianic figure at home that she remains abroad for the most part.
But from there, Viner settles comfortably into the Guardian house style: a gauzy, sentimental portrait painted entirely in the hues of liberal internationalism and curated amnesia. No difficult questions. No scrutiny. Just a soft-focus rehash of “imposter syndrome,” “empathy,” “shared values,” and — of course — “20,000 lives saved,” that magic number rolled out like a divine miracle at every podium.
What wasn’t asked? Well, quite a bit outside the echo chamber such as:
• How does one become a global icon of progressive leadership without ever having passed a significant law in three terms as a backbencher?
• Does she acknowledge that she never won the popular vote, and owes her premiership to Winston Peters’ weary kingmaking?
• Any regrets over calling David Seymour “an arrogant prick” in Parliament — the kind of conduct that would end lesser careers in the “kindness economy”?
• or her initial reaction to learning how mahuta and the greens —in the dead of night — steered a clause in the Three Waters bill to “entrench” public ownership of water assets, by mandating any future law change could only occur with a 60% majority (down from 75%) in Parliament, or public referendum.
So bad was the optics, Ardern had to dump that clause.
But such questions were evidently far too Stuff-y for The Guardian’s taste — and by that we mean real, as opposed to Stuffed, where public trust and financial solvency go to die together. Like its antipodean counterpart, The Guardian is proudly woke, perpetually broke, and utterly baffled by the electorate’s growing fatigue with its ideological sermons.
The interview is a perfect case study in what happens when media becomes the PR arm of the global elite: challenging power is replaced with cheerleading it, and journalism morphs into a TED Talk in print. For an editor-in-chief, Viner played a remarkably good intern.
In the end, Ardern gets the global platform she craves, The Guardian gets to bask in the glow of borrowed virtue, and readers get… well, a reminder of why trust in media is now as scarce as fiscal discipline in a Green Party budget.
Any mention of her He Puapua document ?
The most evil and destructive document ever written in NZ which was designed to destroy democracy and establish an apartheid administration ???
Any ?
Surely, she has to front up to that and try to tell us that it wasn't a mistake ?
Absolutely, Anon !!
Same for many many of us here in the nation she almost destroyed.
Disastrous. Dangerous . Deceitful.
Almost destroyed Doug? Almost?
DO NOT BUY HER BOOK....She is the epitomy of E V I L and Quite Mad.... Why is she waxing lyrical now? Has she run out of fools overseas? Or is WEF pushing her into action again? Totally s i c k .... I hear she's running a "cancer scare".... oh..... to be like the Royal Family and get sympathy. !!!! She gives fish and chippies a bad name.
I believe that person was that most divisive politician to ever take office in a western democracy.
Forget Trump. Forget Thatcher.
The mullet wrapper from Morinville recklessly herded a multitude of weak-minded sheep to the edge of the abyss.
Having read, the article and the posted comments my thoughts turned to a historical event in our distant past, where a " delightful group [of men, in costume] " - took all books they could lay their hands on and burnt them.
Now could we emulate that " feat" by raiding any/all bookshops that have Ms. A's book on sale and " burn them"?
Please note - that for the safety of the Moderator - I have not named names of those (or whereabouts) in the historical past, in case it causes ' heart burn ' at being reminded of our history past!
But, there will be a time in our future that such an action - " Will repeat itself".
She campaigned on moving the abortion act from the crimes act to the health act. But in March 2020 when all of NZ was in full lockdown, under the cover of darkness. She changed the Law from abortions being pro formed from 28 weeks to 40 weeks, which is to the point of birth. This gave NZ to have the most advanced liberal abortion laws in the world. This was not reported by the NZ media and I believe it was the most evil act she commented.
I hope she stays in America and those stupid institutions keep getting ripped off by the liar
True - many were complicit. And will be complicit again -seduced by free- this and no -cost that appeals to their low-level "entitlement" mentality. NZ's voting base is a very dangerous force.
Wishart may have a new book coming out...
https://x.com/investigatemag/status/1929869205333332132
Any comment from her is, frankly, just gaslighting at this point. She doesn’t deserve the energy from a response.
What I am looking forward to seeing is whether her book manages to actually sell the required 140,000 copies to break even (presumably because they overestimated her value), & whether the copies sold in NZ will match that of Judith Collins’ memoir. Highly unlikely!
That’s the beauty of narcissistic & hypocritical socialists like Jacinda: they not only have grandiose delusions of how much they are loved, but are always happy to line their pockets with the benefits of capitalism when it suits. It wasn’t socialism that paid her PM salary & still pays for perks & security now, & it’s not socialist $ that gave her book & movie advances. She got rich while her supporters, predictably, got poorer. She couldn’t have been more of a left-wing ideological cliché if she tried.
And, no matter how much she milks her false prophecy & that of her cult followers, she will always be the most hated & divisive PM we have ever had - the former leader of a country that resoundingly rejected & ejected her, & is unlikely to ever welcome her back.
She might have the $ but SHE IS NOT US.
You can forgive someone if they acknowledge fault and actually ask for it. She is a classic narcissist and narcissists never acknowledge fault. And the other thing about narcs like her. They feed off detractors because it just fuels their complete denial, because they will never genuinely admit they were wrong unless they gain an advantage from it. The best thing we could do is ignore and not comment. But we can't, because victims, who have suffered the impact and ignominy of what she did, never forget.
Does she recall the day that Hosking asked her to articulate the Three Articles of the Treaty ?
The fluffing and ducking as she couldn't ?
That despite polite invitations from Hosking that she never came back to his program ?
That despite the meaning of the Treaty being clear for 180 years, it needed to be re-interpreted by Ardern's friends to create the He Puapua document, which she then implemented to install apartheid in NZ.
Does she mention that she has a very selective memory ?
Any reason why she is too scared to come back home ?
It would be fascinating to have Ardern do a lie detector test.
If she was a true narcissistic person she would fly through the test without problems.
However, I expect that bells and lights would be flashing in alarm to even simple questions.
She is indeed an NPD [Disordered Narcissitic Personality] of an extreme order. [cf Megan markle !!] VERY sick. Very manipulative and total gaslighter. Quite mad. Whatever, do not respond to her. Those she hurt will always feel the hurt... thats nature... but NEVER react to her. IGNORE HER ! Its natural and healthy to remember the pain. That can be turned into something that benefits one. NZ must never welcome her back. Wonder if she's looking at a return to Labour????? zzzzzzzzzzzz!!!
Ah, if I'd wanted a Jacinda Ardern hate-fest, I've come to the right place. Same place as the Donald Trump fan club!
No surprise Ardern still spouts the lie of her scamdemic policies having saved the lives of 20,000 people etc - despite all the facts proving otherwise.
It’s a bit like the parents of the ‘trans’ kids - much easier to defend a lie than admit you got it so horribly wrong.
Anon 9.29 - if you are a Jacinda fan, good on you, your choice ... but why? What appeals to you? What achievements do you admire? What has she done to leave NZ in a better place?
Didn't say I was a Jacinda fan - I think Jacinda Ardern is a flawed ex-leader - did some things right, some things wrong. She attracted too much silly adulation, and as it was irrational, so was the turn to the demonisation. A risk with women leaders: the angel / demon binary kicks in.
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