Matua Kahurangi: The propaganda playbook

How the Ardern government funded online propaganda during COVID

During the Covid pandemic, it was nearly impossible to question the government narrative without being piled on by an army of self-proclaimed experts, keyboard warriors, and smug “trust the science” types. It felt strangely coordinated at the time, as if there was an unspoken campaign to shut down any conversation that strayed from the government’s script. Many suspected that certain voices were being backed and funded to discredit dissent. Now we know that suspicion was not only justified, it was completely accurate.

Jacinda Ardern’s government was actively funding groups to suppress opposing viewpoints online. Under the guise of the “Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism” fund, taxpayer money was funnelled to individuals and organisations whose job was not to promote unity or wellbeing, but to gaslight and humiliate New Zealanders who questioned the government line. The fund, supposedly created to combat real extremism, was used instead to smear concerned citizens and to dismiss any criticism of lockdowns, vaccine mandates, or the erosion of civil liberties.

One name that has come up repeatedly is Jacinta O’Reilly. While many assumed she was just another ideologically possessed internet addict, she was in fact part of a government-backed network that labelled critics as conspiracy theorists and spread misinformation under the banner of “keeping people safe”. Her role was not just informal or organic. She was, quite literally, being paid to do it. She spent her days behind a screen, attacking strangers for the crime of having a different opinion and then justifying it by calling them a threat to national safety.

But it did not stop with internet trolls. Ardern’s government also handed over $50 million to the media, a sum too large to ignore. That money ensured the media maintained a tight grip on the official narrative and never allowed any real debate. Anyone in the media who dared to challenge the government message during Covid was quickly shut down or ignored altogether. In short, the public were manipulated from both sides: by so-called experts on TV, and by state-backed informants online.

This was not public health. This was not compassion. This was psychological warfare dressed up as community safety.

The parallels with history are chilling. The tactics used by the Ardern government bear a disturbing resemblance to propaganda campaigns used in some of the darkest chapters of the 20th century. Instead of leaflets and loudspeakers, the message was delivered by influencers, paid activists, and news anchors reading from the same script. This was coordinated social control disguised as information management. When the state pays people to undermine and isolate its own citizens for disagreeing, that is not democracy. That is tyranny.

If you had any doubt about the credibility of these government-funded “fact checkers” and Covid evangelists, one only needed to watch Jacinta O’Reilly’s recent performance at the Covid Inquiry. It was a rambling, confused, incoherent mess. Her testimony was embarrassing, her memory shaky, and her tone dismissive of the real harms caused to countless New Zealanders. It confirmed what many of us suspected all along. The people behind this crusade to protect the government narrative were not experts. They were opportunists and unstable ideologues, some with deeply troubling behaviour online.

Contrary to the image of government defenders as brave, educated champions of truth, many were nothing of the sort. While some imagined they were dealing with tech-savvy public servants or academic researchers, the reality was far more absurd. Behind the accounts ridiculing protesters and cheerleading vaccine passports were elderly women in a mental fog, and young men who film themselves masturbating into Big Mac burgers and violating themselves with carrots. That is not satire. That is who the government empowered to control public discourse.

For years, critics were told they were paranoid. They were laughed at, deplatformed, even fired for expressing valid concerns. But now the facts are in, and the truth is unavoidable. The so-called conspiracy theorists were right again.

Perhaps the most disheartening part of all this is that some New Zealanders still support Jacinda Ardern. They still defend her time in office, pretending that what happened was just necessary pandemic response. It was not. It was a wholesale betrayal of the values this country is supposed to stand for. The rights to question, to speak, and to dissent were trampled. People lost their livelihoods. Families were divided. Trust in institutions was shattered. All to maintain a narrative built on fear and enforced with taxpayer-funded intimidation.

And where is Jacinda now? Not in New Zealand. She does not have to live with the consequences of what she did. She is off overseas, collecting awards and fellowships, all while the country she left behind is still recovering.

What she did to this country is unforgivable. And the fact that she has never been held accountable, never issued a proper apology, and never shown an ounce of regret says everything you need to know. She deserves every bit of criticism that is thrown her way. Not out of spite, but because accountability matters

Matua Kahurangi is just a bloke sharing thoughts on New Zealand and the world beyond. No fluff, just honest takes. He blogs on https://matuakahurangi.com/ where this article was sourced.