“You’ve got to ensure that the holders of an opinion, however unpopular, are allowed to put across their points of view.”
Betty Boothroyd, Former Speaker of the House of Commons.
Trust in public authority is a fragile thing and must be protected in this pandemic.
What on earth does this have to do with New Zealander of the Year Dr Siouxsie Wiles contradicting her own advice on best practice infection control at an Auckland beach last weekend?
Unlike other New Zealanders caught in the act of trying to bend rules, Wiles’s actions were shamelessly defended by the Prime Minister, the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Health, the Director General of Health and pretty much everyone else from the left. The Delta strain is fleeting, confusing and unforgiving in exploiting our weaknesses and does not discriminate between left and right; it does not care who you defend.
But defend, they did.
For locked-down Kiwis watching from home and abroad, Ardern has shown us that she will readily forgive her friends’ mishaps outdoors while at the same time insisting on one of the strictest periods of lockdown seen in the OECD.
Prologue
Saturday, 11 September
Wiles was filmed sitting down, casually observing her friend’s illegal swim, maskless, happy and without a care. Less than a week earlier on 7 September 2021 she’d said to Radio NZ,“For the good of everybody, wearing a mask when you’re out of your home is a good idea.”
What happened next was unusual, and this is what this story is really about.
Part 1 – Big, Fat Hypocrite
Opposition Leader Judith Collins called out this act of hypocrisy using the words above to maximum effect. The Prime Minister, the Director-General of Health and CEO of the Ministry of Health also responded publicly.
Have no doubt, that Judith was careful and deliberate with her words.
Part 2 – Disinformation
In a change of tone from telling us to wear masks, Wiles warned us of ‘disinformation’ after right-wing journalist Cam Slater said that she broke lockdown rules. Without providing evidence, she claimed that this was a “really clear case of disinformation” that was spread to discredit her and disrupt the country’s collective response to Covid-19.
What really disrupts the country’s collective response to the pandemic is when the rules are broken and one’s public platform is used not to clarify, but to shift blame onto others. What really disrupts our democratic system is when words like ‘disinformation’ are used so irresponsibly.
Have no doubt, that Wiles was careful and deliberate with her words.
Part 3 – Not a Swim
“I’ve had a message from Siouxsie who described what happened. From what she told me, it didn’t sound like protocols were breached, and I don’t think that the person who went into the water what they did could be described as a swim,” Ashley Bloomfield said at the daily 1:00pm press conference on 14 September, adding that the response to the incident was unwarranted while acknowledging that he knows Siouxsie quite well.
I deplore name-calling and agree Judith’s response was unwarranted, but I was more offended by the Orwellian words from our Director-General of Health saying that this is “not a swim”, than the words “big, fat hypocrite”.
Part 4 – Suddenly, New Zealand Needs a Serious Opposition Leader
Toby Manhire wrote a thoughtful, balanced, but ultimately supportive piece about Wiles on the Spinoff, which was on the front page of New Zealand’s biggest newspaper last Saturday. It was this opinion that inspired me to write my longest Letter to the Editor yet – mainly because I agreed with the Editor of the Spinoff:
“In a democracy, especially one in the midst of a crisis that has delivered extreme limitations on freedoms, however broad the support for those limitations might be, we need and deserve the scrutiny of opposition”.
Whenever a government and its confidants call for an opposition replacement, their motive needs to be examined. Are the obvious replacements like Luxon and Bridges more palatable for them? Or are people just appalled at the audacity of our opposition leader for being mean? It’s her job to be mean.
Slam Collins for calling a spade a spade all you want; at least she knows the difference between swimming and not swimming.
Toby refused to publish an earlier version of this piece, as did the NZ Herald.
Part 5 – A Meteoric Rise of David Seymour, an Alternative to Judith Collins?
Somehow, the tenacious but formerly obscure leader of ACT charts a meteoric rise in profile, second only to Jacinda as preferred PM – we note, by a considerable margin – but this is something we have not seen since Winston Peters, following his exit from Parliament in the 2020 General Election. Most of us understand how powerful holding the balance of power is in our MMP system, and I wonder if this is what Judith’s critics wanted – David is from a party who advocates a different position to the National Party and contrasts heavily to National’s own platform, not to mention Labour’s.
The Epilogue Is up to Us
There is no price that stranded and stuck Kiwis wouldn’t pay right now for Wiles’s direct line to the Prime Minister and for the same understanding that might help them obtain an exemption to return home or to properly honour the passing of their loved ones.
I went to university with ACT Party Leader David Seymour and sent him a DM asking not what he thought about the polls, but what he thought about integrity:
“Integrity is about offering a well thought out plan and implementing it consistently”.
That was after he shared with me that it is always the “holier than thou” who contradict themselves.
How important is integrity when you are an elected decision-maker?
I asked David this question for a reason: he has a degree in philosophy but more importantly has a hard-earned platform now.
The last week has raised questions about integrity from our leaders in a time of crisis.
Clint Heine, Kiwis in London director told me:
“There are many challenging issues that Kiwis residing outside of New Zealand are facing, more so a lack of acknowledgement from the Prime Minister that we exist”.
“Only once has Prime Minister Ardern referred to those of us booted out of the “Team of Five Million” and was reluctant in confirming our legal right to return, even if she’d prefer not to have this burden to deal with. Labour MPs were so cheeky to not campaign for offshore votes in 2020 either, meaning that the Labour Government has kept expats at an arm’s length”.
Can I remind you that any group of New Zealanders larger than 250,000 can not only influence an election but perhaps be the 5% needed to secure a minor party’s representation in our Parliament?
Clint understands better than anyone that any New Zealander would like to be privileged enough to have a direct line to Ardern, which Siouxsie Wiles appears to have. He is referring to a Guardian article: Jacinda Ardern is known for her empathy – but where is it for Kiwis returning home?
So who am I, then?
I am a Kiwi, who found myself working at Ground Zero of Australia’s Covid-19 response. I saw this virus beat politicians and public servants into the ground, I handed tissues to the stranded, imprisoned and bereaved to dry their tears. I don’t mean to be morbid, but I saw death, disease and a failure to act cohesively.
To empathise with Dr Siouxsie Wiles, I too was met with difficult questions in relation to the grey areas: what is OK and what isn’t during emergency situations? Can I attend the funeral of my husband who died from Covid during a lockdown?
I’ve seen people lose their jobs for much less than appearing maskless in public; I have seen unprecedented attacks on public servants and seen both Ministers for Health and department heads roll.
While it is not up to me to determine what is right and wrong in relation to the rules, I have a right to be appalled at the double standards displayed to the favoured by the Prime Minister last week.
Please heed my words of caution – just as this virus does not discriminate, neither should we. Take it from my adopted home state’s chilling words of caution, before Melbourne was hit with Delta, some time before New Zealand:
“This is an outbreak waiting to happen, this is a lockdown waiting to happen, because the government hasn’t learnt the lessons and they still can’t get it right”
Victorian Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien – 5 May 2021.
On Sunday I awoke to my two-hundred-and-thirtieth day in lockdown in Melbourne. There were violent anti-lockdown clashes and 535 new cases.
Australia’s and Melbourne’s hopes of eliminating Covid-19 grow smaller every day. But we still have a chance of eliminating this virus, at least for now.
This is a defence of democracy because democracy is our biggest defence to eliminating Covid-19 – the protection of free ideas and information, a consistent and fair application of rules and standards.
I am inclined to agree with Heather du Plessis Allan in her interview with Wiles: “There’s more expected of you, do you accept that?”
And, in the erudite words of Dr Siouxsie Wiles herself, “oh, yeah….”
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