The latest Jacinda Ardern–Scott Morrison contretemps – her unwonted, un-diplomatic public scolding of the Australian prime minister over deporting New Zealand-born criminals in Australia – has been fairly thoroughly dissected here at The BFD. But it’s a gift that just keeps on giving.
Especially because, perhaps like no other of her government’s scandals except for the Labour sexual assault accusations, it underscores Ardern’s blatant hypocrisy. On everything from asylum seekers to immigration, to deportations, Ardern trumpets her virtue for the global media – all while doing exactly the same, or worse, as those she wags her finger at.
Ardern touts herself as some kind of Merkel of the South Pacific, shamelessly grandstanding her “offer” to resettle rejected asylum seekers refusing to leave Nauru and Manus Island. Yet New Zealand’s actual record on the issue is pitiful. Despite Ardern’s promise to “significantly” raise New Zealand’s refugee intake, the fact remains that, per capita, Australia takes in eight times as many refugees.
Immigration is no better: Australia’s per capita immigration intake is twice New Zealand’s.
But worst is Ardern’s record on deportations, the very issue she is so opportunistically showboating.
As Wellington-based senior political reporter Laura Walters noted this month in Newsroom, New Zealand has in the last five years deported over 1000 Pacific Islanders, with 400 of these removals resulting from criminal convictions. Some of these deportees had no family links to their place of origin, did not speak the local language, and had no access to social services of welfare. At least the 1600 New Zealanders deported from Australia over the last five years have access to the latter.
Former New Zealand immigration minister Tuariki John Delamere also agrees[…]“It’s hypocrisy like you wouldn’t believe,” he said of Ardern’s remonstrating with Morrison. “There’s a degree of arrogance I think – that we should be special.”
There is also a whiff of what would be called “racism” in any politician who wasn’t a “progressive” young female.
Given the deportees hold New Zealand citizenship, who is she to make arbitrary distinctions about “genuine” Kiwis? For example, in the category of “non-genuine” Kiwis, does Ardern include Maori, who along with Pacific Islanders make up more than 60 per cent of the deportees in question?
Ardern’s Deputy PM, Winston Peters, is no better.
The hypocrisy does not end there. “Our special relationship changed in 2001,” Peters added, referring to the Howard government’s tightening of Australian citizenship entitlements for New Zealand residents. Yet he himself declared on the eve of the 2017 election that whichever party formed government should as its first official act apologise to Australia for providing a back door to immigrants who never would have been admitted but for their Kiwi citizenship. “Our easy immigration policy allowed them to use us as a stepping stone to a country that without us they would never have got to — Australia,” he said.
Ardern can stamp her feet all she wants, but these deportations are a long-term consequence of various New Zealand governments bestowing citizenship willy-nilly. Instead of addressing a problem of her country’s making, she has the audacity to insist Australia own it.
theaustralian.com.au/world/jacinda-ardern-has-almost-zero-likelihood-of-a-rapprochement-with-scott-morrison-should-she-be-reelected/
Not owning problems of her own making? Sums up Ardern’s entire approach to governance.
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