It is a rhetorical question, because you all know the answer. Either the baby is wheeled out, or there is a puff piece on Jacinda Ardern. I waited for a baby pic on Friday, but this week has been so bad for the government, and for Jacinda in particular, that a baby photo was never going to cut it. Even Jacinda getting herself covered in baby poo was never going to cut it. This time, we need the big guns. This time, we need to be reminded how she might – please note MIGHT – be in line for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Prime minister Jacinda Ardern, 39, is an unusual figure by American standards. Elected with little leadership experience two years ago, she is now “the most obvious candidate for a Nobel Prize,” says Kurt Campbell, a former assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.
She is likely to get the Nobel Peace Prize for hugging people? Is that all it takes nowadays? So, what this means is that Nobel Peace Prizes are given away in cornflakes packets. Before she is awarded anything, someone should consult the victims of the various Labour Party sex scandals, to see how they feel about it.
Because, a year ago, at the UN General Assembly, Jacinda talked about how #metoo should become #wetoo. How women should not have to put up with sexual assault. It was a powerful speech, but as we all know now, she didn’t mean a word of it. The victims of sexual abuse within the Labour party have been hung out to dry. Ignored, disbelieved, and told not to go to the police, they were assured that the Party would deal with the allegations, only for the Party to brush them under the carpet and find no case to answer.
Are you seriously telling me that the leader of this Party might be in line for a Nobel Peace Prize?
Seriously?
Well, Lally Weymouth of the Washington Post thinks so.
On the eve of her trip to New York for the first UN General Assembly meeting since the tragedy catapulted her to global renown, New Zealand’s Ardern chatted in her office with The Washington Post’s Lally Weymouth about gun control, Chinese interference and whether she’d have a second child while in office.
Have you ever seen so much media interference as happens around Jacinda Ardern? Why is it that, two years after her becoming prime minister, we are still reading articles about her ‘rise to power’ and the fact that she has had a baby? Did this happen with John Key? No, it didn’t because John Key, whose rise to power was far more meteoric than Jacinda’s, had one thing that she has never had. He had substance.
When there is nothing positive that you can say about Jacinda’s time as prime minister, then you have no choice. You have to keep regurgitating the supposedly good stuff… that she won an election after being the Labour leader for only seven weeks (they did not win the election, if you remember, but if you say it often enough, it will become truth. Orwell called it “Newspeak”), and that she has had a baby. That is all there is. Really.
Q: You also created a gun buyback programme.
A: Yes, and it’s now brought in more than 17,000 semiautomatic and assault rifles. Over 70,000 banned parts have been returned as well. Initially, we said we were going to deal with the guns that we thought just weren’t necessary. That was done within 12 days. People now bring back their guns and acknowledge that it’s all about making New Zealand safer.
Yes, I feel really safe, knowing that responsible, licensed gun holders have given up their semi-automatic weapons while the gangs still hold whatever weapons they want.
Q: Do you worry about China coming to dominate the Pacific Island states?
A: What dominates my concern with the Pacific Islands is climate change. That has been identified by the Pacific Islands themselves as their biggest regional security threat. Of course there is a debate about the presence of others in the region.
Yeah, don’t worry about Chinese influence in the Pacific, Jacinda. Climate change is the issue – where islands are disappearing because of abusing their own water systems and causing flooding and extreme water issues – is it?
Q: Before the 2017 election, you weren’t the head of the Labour Party. Andrew Little, the leader, resigned shortly before the election and said you should take over.
A: Actually, I just told him no. I said he should stay, but he quit. I was already the deputy, and so I accepted the nomination to be party leader.
Stuff.
Yet here we are.
Jacinda is off to the UN next week, via Japan… no doubt to flirt with the All Blacks and have a few more photoshoots. There is no doubt, though, that her brand is tainted. I am not sure where exactly this will end, but her naivety and lack of substance is out there for all to see.
#metoo should be #wetoo? Ask the Labour Party sexual assault victims how exactly they feel about that.