The reality is that she walked away from the job before voters could pass their own verdict, and now she has walked away from the country she once claimed to love so fiercely. For a leader who preached kindness and solidarity, the exit was cowardly.
Her lefty lovers still talk about “world-leading” pandemic management. Many New Zealanders remember something else entirely. They remember some of the harshest lockdowns in the democratic world. They remember businesses destroyed while politicians held press conferences about being a “team of five million”. They remember being told when they could leave their homes, who they could see, and whether they were essential enough to earn a living.
They remember mandates that left workers with an impossible choice. Take a newly developed vaccine or lose your job. Call it public health policy if you like. For thousands of families it felt like state-backed coercion. The social damage lingers. Friendships fractured. Families split. Trust in institutions cratered.
Then there was the money.
Under her government, tens of millions of dollars were channelled into media through schemes such as the Public Interest Journalism Fund. Officially it was to support struggling outlets and promote quality reporting. Myself and many others saw something far uglier. They saw a media class financially dependent on the very government it was meant to scrutinise. They saw hard questions replaced with soft interviews and applause lines. Whether you call it funding or influence, it eroded confidence in both politics and journalism.
Ardern built a global brand on empathy and progressive virtue. International magazines swooned. Foreign universities handed out fellowships. Overseas audiences saw glossy headlines and carefully curated narratives. Back home, many saw rising crime, worsening cost of living pressures, a housing market out of reach, and a country increasingly divided along cultural and political lines.
She is easily the most hated prime minister in our history. She left office with deep reservoirs of anger directed at her leadership. You do not get that level of backlash from nowhere. It grows from decisions that hurt people and a style of politics that dismissed critics as fringe, selfish or dangerous.
Now she is across the Tasman. Fitting, really. Australia has always been the escape valve for disillusioned Kiwis. This time, the flow goes both ways.
If Australians want the global celebrity version of Jacinda, they are welcome to it. Just understand that behind the carefully crafted image sits a legacy that many New Zealanders are still living with. Lockdowns that scarred communities. Mandates that cost livelihoods. Media arrangements that raised serious questions about independence. A politics of moral superiority that left half the country feeling lectured and sidelined.
We are told she represents the best of us. For a large and growing number of Kiwis, she represents a period they would rather never repeat.
Australia, she is yours.
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.
They remember mandates that left workers with an impossible choice. Take a newly developed vaccine or lose your job. Call it public health policy if you like. For thousands of families it felt like state-backed coercion. The social damage lingers. Friendships fractured. Families split. Trust in institutions cratered.
Then there was the money.
Under her government, tens of millions of dollars were channelled into media through schemes such as the Public Interest Journalism Fund. Officially it was to support struggling outlets and promote quality reporting. Myself and many others saw something far uglier. They saw a media class financially dependent on the very government it was meant to scrutinise. They saw hard questions replaced with soft interviews and applause lines. Whether you call it funding or influence, it eroded confidence in both politics and journalism.
Ardern built a global brand on empathy and progressive virtue. International magazines swooned. Foreign universities handed out fellowships. Overseas audiences saw glossy headlines and carefully curated narratives. Back home, many saw rising crime, worsening cost of living pressures, a housing market out of reach, and a country increasingly divided along cultural and political lines.
She is easily the most hated prime minister in our history. She left office with deep reservoirs of anger directed at her leadership. You do not get that level of backlash from nowhere. It grows from decisions that hurt people and a style of politics that dismissed critics as fringe, selfish or dangerous.
Now she is across the Tasman. Fitting, really. Australia has always been the escape valve for disillusioned Kiwis. This time, the flow goes both ways.
If Australians want the global celebrity version of Jacinda, they are welcome to it. Just understand that behind the carefully crafted image sits a legacy that many New Zealanders are still living with. Lockdowns that scarred communities. Mandates that cost livelihoods. Media arrangements that raised serious questions about independence. A politics of moral superiority that left half the country feeling lectured and sidelined.
We are told she represents the best of us. For a large and growing number of Kiwis, she represents a period they would rather never repeat.
Australia, she is yours.
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.
13 comments:
Face reality: Ardern exemplifies a frightening example of cultural marxism in action as a government - and the damage it did to NZ where recovery is still fragile and uncertain. For their own survival, NZers should make sure this does not come again.
Australia is far too close for my liking.
But why does she insist on living in democracies, particularly, in this case, one whose wealth is based on mining and who refuses to give indigenous people their own seats in Parliament? One would expect her to want to live with her "comrades".
Ardern has always had bigger promise than Nee Zealand can support. She is set for the world stage, and Australia has bigger opportunities by far.
Whilst I agree with the sentiment, it's time to stop obsessing about Ardern. She's yesterday's news. Time to put on our big boys' pants and move on.
Who said " She represents the best of us?"
That person is delusional.
Well said.
My only regret is that I'm unlikely to be around when her final demise comes.
With her misjudged monetary response to covid, Jacinda wrecked many careers, business' and, through the associated inflation, many persons saving's. He Puapua should also have provoked great ire but I suspect only about 10% of non maori became aware of or grasped the implications, and whilst most of those would be opposed they were/are not demented crackpots. Yet despite moderate cause for disapproval, and the affected group generally civilised and intelligent, Jacinda is apparently intimidated by the prospect of facing the NZ public. Little wonder mps are so reluctant to take a firm line against maorification. With the wild insurgent rhetoric to which maori are constantly subject, and the large proportion of unbalanced, and of indoctrinated congenital nutters, and the tikanga of utu and violence, the threat in retirement to any seriously and consistently counter maorification mp would render unprotected retirement life in NZ extremely fraught and risky. Hence present policy of indulgement.
I well remember the morning when Ardern could not tell Hosking what the 3 Articles of the Treaty were, and then within a short time was imposing 3 Waters on NZ.
The most evil racist hated woman whoever entered Parliament.
Most people offshore have no idea what a con woman she is - Aussies watch out !
New Zealand likes to think itself progressive but they can’t handle a female prime minister. Egos are far too fragile.
In reading articles & comments about JA, how many New Zealander's know anything about her political background, from the time she joined "Team Clark", when HC became PM for the next 9 years, following Jim Bolger being shown the door.
Are you also aware that Grant Robertson. also joined the 9th floor at the same time, as well as Chipster, learning to follow Mallard.
Then came the Key Govt and the placement of JA, as a list MP for Labour in a seat within the debating chamber - 9 years, so what did she learn, did she apply those lessons and carry them forward?
Hmmmm, I recall seeing her in the debating chamber, with cell phone in hand, no doubt txting.
Judith Collins did the same thing, head down over cell phone, txting.
Twins??
Therefore ask yourself, what creds? did JA have to -
1- become the deputy Leader, under Little
then -
2. - who decided, Little was not wanted, and JA would now be the Leader??
The rest is History for NZ and continues today.
The BBC has a wokey article as usual seeing her as an example of the brain drain. I had some sympathy or her line at the start of Covid but it was the underhand other stuff to do with He Puapua that turned me strongly away. There are still people I encounter who have never heard of He Puapua, the journalism fund and its strings etc and think it is all made up. After all to them things are sort of OK, food on the table, rugby and whatever and it ''doesn't affect me'' anyway. They really do not give a hoot.
Teeth's move to Oz was pretty-well known and forecast, but who knew what she paid, and from what, for her luxury mansion by the sea. Blatant duplicity scarcely scratches the surface.
Our finest are leaving for better shores, the rest of us remain, calling each other names. The New Zealand I know and love.
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