Jacinda Ardern to step down as New Zealand PM

Boggles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128216#Comment_120128216

Could you provide a link from the New Zealand high court quoting that please?

https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/social-media-claim-tampers-with-nz-high-court-ruling/

Boggles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128259#Comment_120128259

Really? What age are you?

Politics has always been essentially a popularity contest and still is.

Yes, I found it extremely funny that she drove incels and conspiracy loons nuts, Did you not?

Sunny Disposition

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128017#Comment_120128017

Isn't it awful horse sh!t? How would Tubs get a feel for the impact of her policies given that he lives in Ireland?

Again I'm not criticising Arden at all, I'm criticising people who praise her but who aren't humble enough to realise they haven't a clue how well or poorly she has done. She seems like a nice enough woman, but people on the other side of the world, myself included, don't know whether she has been effective or not.

hotmail.com

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128282#Comment_120128282

No I don't think you realise that you're in a minority view on that one.

Most people prefer consensus and don't really concentrate on the minority of nutters out there.

Your type of approach is part of the divisive rubbish that has come in from America.

Fr Tod Umptious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128241#Comment_120128241

The country was sealed off from the rest of the world during COVID.

That allowed them to get on with it, but even a single case triggered a national lockdown, and it happened a few times.

Isolating the country from the rest of the world is a lot easier when you are an island in the Pacific, miles from anywhere.

What they did during COVID worked for them, but would not be applicable to somewhere like Ireland.

Boggles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128290#Comment_120128290

I don't think I am in the minority view of laughing at said nutters.

TagoMago

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128202#Comment_120128202

On the controlling ideas part, would you feel the same about, say, a government trying to prevent an Islamic terrorist group from trying to recruit people online? They're just expressing their right to free speech too, right?

Regarding Adhern, the internet culture war (which probably peaked around 2017) definitely created the perfect storm for her tenure, and massively increased the amount of international exposure she received. Depending on who you talked to she was either the greatest head of state in the world or an authoritarian dictator who stripped the liberties of her people entirely. In reality she seemed a fairly competent leader who handled certain crises well (the terrorist attack on the mosque, earthquake), and others badly (the Covid restrictions).

TomTomTim

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128288#Comment_120128288

Tubs was even wetting himself when dealing Hillary Clinton, someone who'd be dubious enough to most people. Anyone who's bigger than him, and has a positive media profile, will be worshiped by him. He's a ladder climber, a status lover, so he thinks that kissing the right arses will help his own profile.

foxsake

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128358#Comment_120128358

i believe in free speech . you bring up a tricky point of Islamic terrorist group but is it incitement to harm others or just general raging.

I don't like the crime of "association" cos it sounds like thought-crime to me . Actions are different , commanding others to do physical harm is different.

She went much further than terrorism in her dislike for speech she didn't like. she was another clown that declared everything that was critical of her view on how society (esp western society) ran was "far right".

RetroEncabulator

I assume she’s just deciding to move on and give whoever replaces her an opportunity to build profile before the next general elections in NZ.

She’s hardly going to want to do that job forever and she’s relatively young, so she’s not going to be PM and then just retire take up golf, as might be the case if you were leaving that role in your late 60s.

Seems like a sensible and non controversial way of moving on to whatever it is she takes to next.

Witcher

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128216#Comment_120128216

Fact Check

'Mostly False. A judge ruled the mandate unjustifiably limited some human rights of around 300 people, but he did not declare it a gross violation of human rights.'

https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/social-media-claim-tampers-with-nz-high-court-ruling/

Boggles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128326#Comment_120128326

That allowed them to get on with it, but even a single case triggered a national lockdown, and it happened a few times.

That's not true, when there was confirmed community transmission various levels of restrictions were introduced in various geographic areas.

Virtually all their cases identified during that period of isolation after the initial spread was at the border.

By every single metric New Zealand relative to the rest of the Western World was the pinnacle of pandemic control.

Made possible by their isolation and also the trust in their governance.

Didn't hear many New Zealanders complaining when hospitals were functioning as normal or they were in 50,000 seater stadiums.

foxsake

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128237#Comment_120128237

myopic lame response. covid (and her attitude) were so much more than a packed stadium,

ancapailldorcha

Arguably the best world leader during the pandemic. I think history will record her tenure favourably. A shame to see her go.

road_high

Woke authoritarian pain in the arse loses stomach for it once the fake sheen wears off- who’d have seen that one coming? No doubt something big lined in the NGO set for afters

road_high

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120127784#Comment_120127784

She’s a god like figure to the woke cult. We know how much obsessed they are with a respiratory virus.

RetroEncabulator

The comparison with Ireland was ridiculous though. The circumstances were totally different.

Try doing the NZ thing while having an open border with the UK an hour north of Auckland. This was also at the time when UK was being run by Boris Johnson and Co and the DUP were driving NI covid policies. It’s also a border which is one of the most controversial in the world and closing it would be not only contentious but might even be physically dangerous.

Also Ireland is part of the EU - barely an hour and a bit flying time from cities like Paris, Amsterdam, integrated into the same air transit hubs, single market, common currency, freedom of movement rights had to be considered and balanced, supply chains depend on truckers and people moving around, so do many essential services.

There’s also an expectation that you can travel to / from endless European destination at the drop of a hat and very cheaply. That isn’t the case in NZ. It’s far more isolated and travel is fairly long haul. Even a flight to Australia isn’t particularly short. You’ve also family and social ties and commercial between neighbouring and easily accessible countries and all sorts of commercial, work, educational etc etc reasons people travel.

We are also a hop, skip and a jump away from and very cheaply connected to the Northeastern US, and those connections paused and the gate was closed long after the horse bolted.

They are similar populations on islands, with somewhat comparable climates, but they’re in radically different locations, circumstances, supply chains, transport networks, border control policies etc etc

I just remember a lot of smug and very unrealistic comparisons with NZ at the time.

Boggles

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128430#Comment_120128430

The Reality speaks for itself. 🤷‍♂️

AMKC

I liked her. She seemed like a good person had an open mind and always tried to do the right thing.

No idea how she is seen in NZ or what her policies or anything else were like there nor do I really care as I do not live there, have never been and never will be. Australia is the furthest I ever went. That was far enough. I used to think Australia and NZ were just like us with the UK just a short boat trip away but then I found out it was a good 5 hour flight just from Oz to NZ I thought feck that, that's crazy.

quokula

Comfortably the best handling of Covid in the western world, though it should be recognised that NZ's geographical location had more than a little to do with that and it's unlikely that any country with land borders could have achieved it, including us being stuck with the UK's basketcase policies in the north. I've a couple of good friends in NZ that I talk to regularly and they were able to get on with their lives comfortably throughout the pandemic and she's remained popular with them on other domestic matters too.

Like practically every other country on earth, NZ is currently hit by inflation due to energy prices and rising interest rates to combat that and these international issues have hit the governing party in the polls (though her personal polling is still fairly comfortably higher than any other party leader)

ElitesTeam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128443#Comment_120128443

lol locking down a country for years over a common cold.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128580#Comment_120128580

It killed millions of people. Not sure what there is to "lol" about.

Jack Daw

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128443#Comment_120128443

You've obviously been living in NZ in the last few years then to be able to experience first hand how great a leader she was. What was it like there under her leadership?

BuckoA51

Their debt is low, unemployment low, GDP not bad either, plus her government focused on good initiatives like the "well-being budget" which moved away from just judging the country by traditional metrics. Yeah I think she was good, obviously never going to agree with 100% of what a leader does.

hawley

Likely to be a few articles on Irish Mirror, Extra.ie and RSVP of "Ryan Tubridy pays tribute to Jacinda Ardern" by the evening.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128017#Comment_120128017

bucketybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128580#Comment_120128580

Don't say that, its like a dinner bell to the usual covid warriors, you can practically hear them on the way right now!

As for Arden, she seemed alright to me. Somebody trying to be an honest politician as opposed to the Trumps and Boris's of the world, is that really so bad? I'm sure her personal beliefs influenced various decisions but that is simple human nature.

farmingquestion

Great news. I'm tired of the circlejerk over here because she's a woman. People inside NZ weren't totally happy with her but online she got the "wow, every leader should be like her!" treatment. The Irish online almost made her an honorary citizen called Jacinta Ahern. I remember during covid when she said something like "I don't want us to end up like Ireland", it was like she stabbed all the circejerking Irish in the heart.

buried

Only reason she got such a platform was because her entire public personality was the complete opposite to the likes of Trump who was elected at the same time. That's basically it. Nothing to do with policy, nothing to do with any sort of geopolitical importance. Its because she was a young lady with a smiley neo liberal manifesto. Total cult of personality to counteract another personality cult.

You can bet your house that if the next New Zealand prime minister is goung to be some guy who was born in the 60's, you won't hear anything about him or New Zealand, just like you never heard anything about the previous PM before her.

NoviGlitzko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120128597#Comment_120128597

I work in a hospital in Dublin. The missed appointments, cancer wave now and incoming, mental health department on it's knees. Many of the opinion here that it outweighs the damage done by Covid itself. Strict lockdowns were a disaster in many ways and if another pandemic came around tomorrow we wouldn't resort to such measures. The people in NZ must've been going mad.

farmingquestion

This is the kind of rubbish I hope to see the end of now she's gone.

The WTO Director General says:

"Women know when to step down....their egos are lower"

She said women can pick and choose when to stand down because "work does not define them".

While it gives a negative perception of men, wouldn't this also prove why there's a supposed "gender pay gap"?