It’s particularly irritating that Jacinda Ardern has earned herself huge political mileage from national tragedies. First the Christchurch mosque attacks, then White Island and now COVID-19. Is she a harbinger of doom or are we just horribly unlucky? With a financial crisis now looming catching a break seems less likely than ever.
The hijab, the hug, the tragic face and now throwing money at us – we the poor unfortunates. Financial assistance is gratefully received but let’s not forget that the money she’s chucking around will have to be repaid from our pockets.
We should be asking why successful corporates are not putting hands in their own pockets to help out the rank and file who contributed to their success.
Fletchers had the Christchurch rebuild sewn up tighter than a straight jacket. Never mind the quality of the work when they were too busy elbowing out the smaller contractors to take the cream off the top. Little people didn’t matter to them then and they certainly don’t matter now. Christie wrote for the BFD that Fletcher Building is giving employees a 70% pay cut over time as at the same time executives struggle to trim back their multi-million dollar salaries by 30%.
And then there are the big banks who’ve done very nicely out of New Zealand thank you very much and are also very reluctant to put their hands in their pockets in a crisis. They are very happy to take our money and run.
“The big four Australasian banks have been among the most profitable and stable banks in the world for the last two decades and their New Zealand subsidiaries, ANZ, ASB, BNZ and Westpac are typically the most profitable units of these highly profitable banks.
In 2019 the big four extracted roughly $5.71 billion in profits from their New Zealand operations.
The big four banks have enjoyed a highly profitable relationship with New Zealand. At a time when the COVID-19 wrecking ball is demolishing the businesses, jobs and dreams of ordinary New Zealanders it seems the banks aren’t keen to share much of that pain.
If the banks really wanted to make a difference they could immediately pass the full 0.75% cut through to all mortgage holders, including those on currently fixed mortgages. #pass75on”
The other well paid members of the community are our ministers of the crown who also haven’t contemplated taking a pay cut in this crisis because the government regards the pain of pay cuts and unemployment as the domain of the rank and file. Sorry folks, we are on our own in this, there is not a whiff of financial help outside the government and they won’t even join us by taking a personal pay cut.
Ardern is completely focused on ensuring that she alone is front and centre in the current crisis with the exception of the Finance Minister, Grant Robertson. Sending Ministers away from Parliament certainly helped her hog the limelight and because her ministers are missing in action Ardern can legitimately claim full responsibility for the success of COVID-19 restrictions.
The Minister of Health, David Clark, caught media attention but not in a good way and canny Ardern can also use this to her advantage. Clark is Ardern’s insurance, waiting in the wings as the fall guy should the wheels fall off during the COVID-19 crisis. His failings are certainly believable because the media has already called them out.
The other portfolio relevant to this crisis is the Minister of Police, Stuart Nash. Why isn’t he included in the daily COVID-19 updates? Instead, we see ex-Police Commissioner Mike Bush stumping up. He is no threat to Ardern’s leadership, in fact, she regards him so highly that she created a special role for him when his tenure as Police Commissioner ended.
We should also ask, with schools closed, why the Education Minister isn’t offering assurance and updates from his sector? Is this another example of Ardern not wanting to share the limelight?
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