Oh boy. The term #ParttimePM really has struck a nerve. You know that when Jacinda’s henchmen come out in her defence almost immediately. Grant Robertson called Simon Bridges sexist for suggesting that she doesn’t exactly work hard, which is absolutely true. And now, along with Robertson, Trevor Mallard and Winston Peters, Jacinda has yet another henchman… the great Oscar Kightley.
As political sledges go, it’s hard to recall one more disrespectful.
National leader Simon Bridges this week calling Jacinda Ardern a “part-time prime minister” seemed to represent a new weirdly nasty tone entering New Zealand politics.
Hang on a minute, Oscar. What about David Parker, Attorney General of New Zealand, saying Judith Collins sleeps in a crypt? Is that not disrespectful?
What about the Green’s nasty TV advert mocking Simon Bridges’ accent? Was that not disrespectful?
Of course not. These things are perfectly okay if the left does it. If someone on the right does though… it is disrespectful.
But that particular comment seemed personal, with no basis in truth. It’s not like there has been any stories in the media of her wagging work, or calling in sick all the time.
No basis in truth? She’s never in the house, leaves early to put Neve to bed, and then goes off to Tokelau for almost a week on what was supposedly a state visit when everyone knows she went to spend her birthday with her father, who is the Administrator of Tokelau.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson took him to task and wondered if it had a sexist overtone. Bridges rubbished this, but ask yourself. Could you imagine that charge ever being levelled at a male prime minister? Even, the most useless one.
So you think Bridges was being sexist too, do you, Oscar? Well, that is a pity. It is a pity that Jacinda is so poor at her job and so pathetic as a prime minister that people like you have to leap to her defence and when the truth is actually too hard to defend, you have to scream sexism to shut the argument down.
Oscar, remember, appeared on TVNZ’s ‘That’s A Bit Racist’ programme, complaining that a Christchurch barman withheld drinks from him and his comedy troupe because they were Islanders. He has done extremely well out of playing up his Samoan heritage but can scream ‘racist’ as loud as anyone if it suits him.
So why not scream ‘sexist’ if he feels like it too?
I was no fan of Helen Clark, but no one could ever have even thought of calling her a part time PM. She worked extremely hard, and was on top of all relevant issues, unlike Jacinda and her inept government, who don’t understand simple concepts like GDP or CPI.
Also, I simply cannot imagine anyone pulling the sexist card over Helen. First of all, there was no need for it, of course, but secondly, no one would dare. If anyone even thought for one second that Helen was not equal to anything that any man could do, they would be off to the gulag in a heartbeat. No one would actually dare.
To my mind, that was a very deliberate comment, that did seem aimed at a misogynistic part of the electorate who’d prefer a testerone-laden guy in charge, just because they think political leaders should be aggressive males who act forceful all the time.
STUFF
Wrong again, Oscar. Helen Clark won 3 elections, all fair and square. Clearly, the testosterone loving public didn’t mind having a woman at the helm in those days… but they do now? I don’t think so.
What the electorate wants is a prime minister who is professional, competent and hard-working, and Jacinda is none of those things. Calling her a part-time PM is actually fair comment, and there is a growing belief that she escapes the country all the time because she simply cannot deal with the tough stuff that all prime ministers have to deal with at some point.
But that’s okay, Oscar. You carry on living in your little bubble where people pay to see your movies but are all closet racists, and our#ParttimePM prime minister was really working hard in Tokelau. Remember this though. All of her henchmen, including you, that leap to her defence all the time do it because she needs it. If she really was competent and hard-working, the question would never come up… and we all know it. So do you, Oscar.