JACINDA ARDERN: ‘I made mistakes — but I was human.’

Former Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern says her five years in office felt like a decade.

Speaking on Brodie Kane’s Kiwi Yarns show, Ardern reflected on guiding the country through a turbulent period marked by the Christchurch terror attacks, the Whakaari/White Island eruption, major floods, and the Covid-19 pandemic.

“So much happened to New Zealand in a short space of time. I think it’s understandable that the country is still reeling a bit from that period.”
Ardern stressed that Covid-19 was not the sole reason for her decision to step away from politics, but acknowledged the pandemic’s heavy toll.

“I never pinpointed Covid specifically, because in part I think it was just an accumulation of crises. Five years of leadership felt like 10 – that’s probably what I would say.

“As much as you were trying to make the best possible decisions, inevitably there were consequences for people, and people didn’t always believe it was the right thing to do.”

Mistakes were made: Why Jacinda Ardern’s COVID-19 elimination strategy was doomed to fail.

When Jacinda Ardern made the decision to lock down New Zealand – hard – in an effort to eliminate COVID-19 from her island nation, the Australian left cheered: If only we went down the same road, we likewise listened to the experts, we too could get rid of coronavirus and, perhaps, get back to our normal lives.

But now, New Zealand stands as a cautionary tale about the nature of coronavirus: No matter how hard you try to fight the virus by smashing businesses, civil liberties, and lives, the thing always seems to find a way to come back.

—The Sydney Telegraph, August 12th, 2020.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is No Saint. “The population of New Zealand is smaller than New York City. The entire country has a fraction of the air traffic of London alone. The UK had a high number of cases because its capital is one of the biggest cities in the world, is a melting pot of cultures, and is a banking powerhouse… What is motivating British liberals who are singing the praises of New Zealand? It can only be hypocrisy, or just plain ignorance. What happened to open borders and freedom of movement? Wouldn’t they be the first to criticise Boris Johnson for imposing similar restrictions at the border?”

—Spiked, August 14th, 2020.