We have all wanted to hear from Grant as his decisions during covid get trashed by anti-vaxxers and the Death Cult Capitalists, but his role with Otago Uni means he can’t.
But he finally had his chance on Q+A today as he unleashed on the criticism.
His back story of his father in prison seemed mean spirited by Jack who kept dragging it up with the kind of glee Mike Hosking would, but Grant was staunch about its impact on him and his family.
Jack wasted way to much time on Grant’s early life, we all know his early life, we want to hear his defence to the criticisms.
Jack wastes time going on about student loans the way Mike Hosking would.
After Jack wasting so much time, we finally get to the arguments at hand.
Grant smacks back at the criticisms and argues we put public health before death cult capitalism profit margins.
He negates Treasury playing Captain Hindsight and makes the point everyone screamed for support but now wants to bitch about it.
He argues about taxation and his most interesting point is not about gaining the tax, it is what you spend that money on.
Jack puts to him the ZB Talking points…
…Grant points out that he has answered all their questions and has participated in the process and he denounces the show trial element that ACT, NZF and ZB have manifested.
Jack asks about the polarisation that his ZB Trolls have whipped up and wants to know if that’s Grant’s fault.
Grant shrugs, and says he won’t indulge Jack’s ZB talking points.
His championing of women’s sport is given the space it deserves.
His health issues which were hidden from the public are touched upon, he was nearly paralysed by back surgery from intense stress. He has paid an enormous personal cost to his health to lead this country through Covid, and ZB has responded by demonising him.
Grant remains a powerhouse for the Left, we have missed him.
Jack on the other hand is morphing into Mike Hosking because he feels pressured by Ryan Bridge.
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OK I get it, some of you just can’t comprehend that Labour HAVE ALREADY ANSWERED ALL THE QUESTIONS RE COVID and that was accepted. Why waste any more time on “Winnie’s Witch Hunt” or the ZB trolls’ opinions, or for that matter our weak, pathetic media – Jack included this time! So back off you sicko’s and stop your distractions and lies – yes Luxon apologise for your lie about this – https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360791489/luxon-claims-ardern-was-summonsed-covid-inquiry-she-wasnt
What are Grant and Jacinda scared of, Patrize? They must be scared of something, otherwise they’d gladly show up and answer any question posed of them. Their refusal to show up says everything, and none of it is good for them.
They are scared of being lynched in the street bysome nutcase you idiots have unleashed. When a women threatens your child in the toilet you tend to be a little circumspect about what you expose yourself to. Free speech isn’t free and you people have shown no willingness to take responsibility for the consequences of the way you use yours
Mary, they are scared of Luxon being able to get away with telling lies and not being accountable to or by the media.
Yours is a typical right wing comment based on frivolous knowledge.
Mary Ann – I will repeat this link – Luxon lied and you are now trying to make it sound like these Labour MPs are doing something wrong!!! https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360791489/luxon-claims-ardern-was-summonsed-covid-inquiry-she-wasnt. Jacinda, Grant, Chris H and Ayesha V are not scared of anything and have done nothing wrong! They have co-operated fully and have ALREADY ANSWERED EVERY QUESTION ASKED ‘to the satisfaction of the Royal Commission’, so why in the hell would they need to repeat the answers so the spiteful, malicious AH’s out there can tear them to shreds? There are way more urgent issues this CoC-up mob should be focusing on and fixing. The original reason for the inquiry was to learn from it in case we get another pandemic, which we will. Simple to understand. FGS wake up to what is really happening in NZ while we can still fix it.
They did show, more than once
Those cretins don’t or can’t read.
It has been pointed out to them previously along with invitations to accept responsibility for being ignorant and apologizing for being (checks notes) credulous mouth breathing morons who can’t read or comprehend simple words.
No replies or apologies yet, how odd!
@Mary Ann Evans – and what is Winston scared of. He must be scared of something. Lets all start a new conspiracy theory about whos scared of who, and then send Winston to Nuremburg to get treated for mandatitis variants full of bull, then deport him to gaza.
I LOVE YOU JACINDA.
One thing the backlash against covid measures and anti Jacinda backlash showed, was just how many nutters there are on the right. And since conspiracy theorist in Chief Winston was himself in the 2017-2020 govt, the woke terms of reference for the second phase of the covid inquiry very very very very conveniently look at the period from 2021 onwards.kiss kiss kiss.
Almost as bad as conspiracy theorist in Chief Trump’s handling of the on again off again Epstein conspiracies.
I”LL GIVE TRUMP A NOBEL PRIZE or two, if he manages to stop the Ukraine war, as long as I get to bestow it upon him, and decide in which part of his anatomy to stick it.
The covid inquiries findings could predictably include recommendations for:
– building several large hotels at an international airport, that can be comandeered by health quarantine authorities, if there’s another outbreak.
– upgrading ventilation systems on public transport and public buildings, to include air sterilisation that can be turned on if need be.
– enhanced effluent testing, so only suburbs rather than whole cities would need to be locked down.
– have NZPost keep a stockpile of germicidal ppe gear, that can be delivered to all households
– start body temperature scanning of airport arrivals, whenever an outbreak is suspected.
– establish a small scale local mRNA vaccine and monoclonal manufacturing plant.
We have now seen first hand how history will show that the so called independent media was against every single decision made during the covid pandemic. How they gleefully reported on poor people who had decided to go on holiday and then surprise surprise couldn’t get back home,how newsflashes told us people had escaped from quarantine . How new Zealanders all of a sudden wanted to come home en masse . ( I wonder why that was, just maybe it was because it was the safest place in the world at that time.). How they gleefully reported people escaping from quarantine, how the opposition was trying to relentlessly score points with the homeless man, Chris Bishop and his infected tourists, . They have come out this week against the former government and the second covid inquiry Peters has enabled the points of reference to exclude him from the inquiry so no consequences for him from his cooker base. Luxon was involved as a business person in the response part of dishing out the dollars he would have first hand knowledge of some decisions made again he was not summoned. The labour government saved lives,businesses and jobs and this is the thanks they get. Creepy old politicians and journalists still fighting them every step of the way.
Imagine having such arrogance and contempt for the public that Robertson, Ardern et al refuse to show up to provide information as to their actions and their policies regarding the most significant political event in the last 100 years. The only conclusion that can reasonably be reached is that they are scared of the questions they may be asked and the trouble that their answers could get them into. Truth fears no investigation, Grant.
They already have provided more information than required so you are just shit stirring
And what questions would they be asked that they are scared to answer?
“Did you have knowledge that the vaccine turns people into magnets?”
“Did you have knowledge that the vaccine in conjunction with wifi turns you impotent and then your phone can control you?”
“Do you have knowledge of mass graves of people who died after taking the jab?”
Please tell us what questions you would love to ask, we could all use a good laugh.
Here is another question the nutter conspiracist would ask,
Did you have knowledge Jacinda met with Bill Gates in Auckland during covid?
Mary, learn to read.
They have testified and, no, some illiterate oik like you wouldn’t be given a chance to ask anything.
And thank goodness for that! People like you shouldn’t be let outside without adult supervision.
Have a cup of tea and a lie down Mary, you are steamed up about nothing. Questions have been answered. You are still alive to complain. It wasn’t a ‘political event’ it was more of a ‘medical event’. As Robertson said, people were screaming for money, and they figured out a way to help them muddle through.
We wonder on a daily basis why Luxon, Brown, Stanford, Brownlee, Bishop, Willis, Seymour, Peters, Jones, all of them actually, won’t answer questions, provide correct information and be transparent about their motives with everything they are doing. They avoid accountability at every turn, ably assisted by your biased media, because everything they do has an underlying motive i.e. diddling NZ’ders.
That is true arrogance and contempt. You think that calling people bottom feeders isn’t contemptuous, think again. The moment your idol, Luxon said that, I knew he was too dumb to be PM.
See the thing is Mary the former government could be answering every question in the world about the covid response until the cows come home and people like you still wouldn’t be satisfied . So what’s the point once a cooker always a cooker people like you who live in a parallel universe. Why don’t you question Winston peters part in all this, why don’t you ask him why he negotiated himself out of the inquiry terms of reference as part of the coalition deal and why don’t you ask him what HE’s got to hide
Keep making excuses for these losers.
Even the woke Jack Tame is bashing these inept former left politicians.
Jacinda and Grant were the worst possible people to have in charge when a crisis like covid hit.
Our kids will be paying of the debt for decades and we will see a real decline in the quality of life for NZers for this first time ever.
Another super unintelligent post that even matches the bobbing farts
What would you have done in the same circumstances?
Another ZB listener who hasn’t had an original thought in their lifetime.
Those “losers” are acknowledged as leading one of the best Covid responses in the world. How about you Chief? Does your manager tell you you’re the best car cleaner in Invercargill? Or is that lofty goal still eluding you?
If you were paying attention, you would know that Nepo Nicky No-clues has increased our net debt much more, and in a shorter time than Labour did. And Nepo Nicky No-clues worsened the structural deficit by reducing Crown revenue.
But you yourself are a structural deficit to this country by being such an ignorant goon.
Man in blue lycra what a f****** d******* you are you are alive because of them not despite them.
@Maninblack – Jacinda and Grant were the best possible people to have in charge when a crisis like covid hit, and even though they were on the scene and on our screens, much of the spend at that time, which I don’t entirely agree with in hindsight, was by Adrian Orr, when the RBNZ announced a Large Scale Asset Purchase programme in 2020, equivalent to about 10% of New Zealand’s GDP in quantitative easing, the first time this had been done in NZ history, to stimulate the economy.
Cue Violins
Yeah something by Vivaldi The Four Seasons would be good – any season would b better than the endless dirge about Covid.
Jack would be protecting his job he tends to slip every now and then and this is one of those cases another was when he interviewed Mr. crimson on education who spoke like a record on high speed.
Yeah the public aspect to this ‘COVID trial’ (it’s not a trial it’s an inquiry- even the PM got confused about that!!!ffs) is a real beat up. Jack Tame has gone to the dogs such as shame as use to think he was fantastic. Not any more.
The reality is people are literally begging for Jacinda and Grant to return to the Beehive. We are on our knees begging for forgiveness from them, begging them to come back to Parliament and rescue this country from this appalling Government.
This part of the inquiry is a stage for grandstanders to yet again loudly parade their grievances, delusions, distortions/revisions of science and historical record as fact and to indignantly demand that their PRATTs* be addressed yet again. It’s a sad reality that constant repetition of falsehoods lies will persuade a certain percentage of the population of their veracity.
* PRATT – Points [already] Refuted A Thousand Times.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/514143/grant-robertson-is-swapping-cabinet-for-academia-but-should-ex-politicians-lead-universities
Good points – Interesting.
<<<In the United States, the university sector is extremely varied and there is a strong tradition of movement between careers in universities, business and government. Yet even there, the appointment of politicians to lead universities is fairly rare.
Elsewhere, it is rarer still. There is a recognition, at least implicitly, that the potential risk to the independence and distinctive societal role of universities requires frank discussion….
Universities began as elite institutions with a degree of separation from society. Shielded from commercial temptation, academics were able to pursue knowledge for its own sake. And shielded from political loyalties, they could ask questions of our social, political and economic systems, and those who create and benefit from them.
The university's role as "critic and conscience of society" became seen as central to democracy. New Zealand went one step further than most countries by enshrining this in legislation…
*Tom Bake is an associate professor in Human Geography, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau.
**Disclosure statement: Tom Baker has received public research funding from the Marsden Fund.
Will Robertson be able to rewrite history himself now in a uni?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/570406/grant-robertson-stands-by-covid-era-spending-in-wake-of-treasury-rewriting-history
… he stood by the fiscal decisions made at the time.
“Treasury and others, as has been reported recently, were saying to us ‘you need to be careful about the impact of what you’re doing on inflation, on the economy’ – and we knew that.
“But as I say, Delta arrived August 2021, we had to deal with that – and actually the Treasury supported us continuing on with the spending that we were doing. It’s a bit of a rewriting of history to be frank, to say that they didn’t.”…
“I remember vividly the day I got the report from Treasury in early 2020 to tell me that we were facing a scenario of 13.5 percent unemployment, and from my perspective as the person dealing more with the economic rather than the health side I just knew I wasn’t going to stand by and let that happen.’
The Covid Recovery Fund was closed in 2022 but “then we get to the 2023 Budget and we’re dealing with the Auckland Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle”.
“We all knew that we had to be careful with where we went, and we didn’t introduce in large number of new measures after late 2021 but we did carry on with the ones we had, because we still needed to look after New Zealanders and businesses…
It seems that looking after New Zealand meant looking after big businesses, they being the big employers, and affecting the unemployment stats most if they shut down. But the small and particularly the micro, one and two people businesses, run by NZ citizens and residents, owned by NZ citizens, needed help equally and would have remembered Covid in a more positive light with some of the help paid to the big firms. They were sorely tried to keep going and utilise their investment in time, skills, and capital to their business (stats show that it often takes 3 years in a new business for the owners doing the work to make a reasonable wage.). And people already had difficult living conditions under many terms of government.
It is just too bland to go all macro economist about this. Covid was impactful on the low earners and on the strugglers, on the unemployed and the employed. Are the big businesses our government has seen fit to woo to come here, needing help. Have we promised them a soft bed, vacated if necessary, by Kiwis , as in a Victorian melodrama? Have we said ““Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” which was put on the Statue of Liberty and written, appropriately named, by Emma Lazarus? Where is the realisation of the service that our wellpaid politicians should feel obliged to deliver when needed? This isn’t a game, but it seems that we are represented by people who have found out ways to game us, and then show us clean hands; that is unscrupulous. Political systems round the world are due for a great clean-out. It appears that our Prime Minister is not prime but is at the behest of the Finance Minister. The Weimar Republic was unseated by this power imbalance. We had a system where Muldoon fiddled while we felt the heat, but have we given up all control to Treasury and the Finance Minister dares not upset the financial markets and therefore weaken our economy? Is that the case?
What gives me the shits is people made mistakes. You know what you do as a person. And some other people want to rake them over the coals for it – made worse by not see them offering good advise to the government at the time.
My problem with Jake is he part of the gotcha crowd of journalism that infests the NZ journalist space. Thank goodness that this site, BHN, Māori Television and Te Whakaruruhau o Ngā Reo Irirangi Māori resist that type of journalism
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