If the four former Labour ministers thought they would preserve their reputations by refusing to appear publicly before the Covid inquiry, they have misjudged it.
It is a refusal, by the way, not a declining. A request to appear before a Royal Commission of Inquiry is not like being invited to a housewarming, where you can just decline if you’re not in the mood.
It’s more like being called into the principal’s office. You’re supposed to say yes. Saying no looks guilty.
Saying no looks like Jacinda Ardern, Grant Robertson, Chris Hipkins and Ayesha Verrall may not be so sure anymore that they did the right things. Or like they’re not sure they can defend themselves. Or like they’re afraid of having to be honest with the public.
Jesus wept, the ZB Trolls know how to ram their talking points down our throats don’t they?
Look at this…
…they are right wing media and they are shrill.
Death Cult Capitalism has to denigrate Jacinda, Grant and chippy for having the audacity of putting public health ahead of their profit margins.
Jacinda, Chippy and Grant HAVE given testimony to this inquiry and answered ALL their questions!
This Inquiry was created by ACT and NZF as a witch trial, it isn’t about learning from Covid, it’s about publicly haranguing our Leaders who guided us through a once in a century pandemic while saving 20000 lives!
NZF supporters are so deep in the conspiracy theory swamp that they want actual hangings, look at these muppets…
…these anti-vaxx nutters are still pushing their lies!
Why feed what is a political kangaroo court by fronting in public!
Labour saved us from the worst pandemic in a century and the need by National, ACT and NZF to denigrate that is sick.
Remember National and NZF and the vast majority of you all supported shutting down the borders, watching so many of you now pretend you didn’t is beneath our collective mana.
Here’s what I despise most about this joke, the motherfucking millisecond a new pandemic with a higher mortality rate breaks out, you will all be screaming to shut the borders you fucking hypocrites!
All we have learned from Covid is the hypocrisy of people complaining about the results when they were the first to scream for the remedy.
This inquiry is a bad faith political stunt pushed by bad faith political actors.
The Covid Inquiry is a right wing witch hunt fuelled by anti vax fanatics and I’m glad that Jacinda, Chippy and Grant told them no to the public humiliation section of this!
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The real issue is how do we respond next time around? AI says it’s not if but when another pandemic occurs.
Better get busy on those gain of function experiments!!??
If you want a response driven by government, vote the coalition.
If you want a public health driven response vote labour.
Who gives an actual f what that vile individual Heather DPA thinks. She’s Sean Hannity in drag.
Covid was a global issue, meaning our response was similar to every other country in the world, meaning had the Natz being in, then the same old measures, but perhaps, with a less personable face, would have been implemented. Only idiots turn global level issues into political divide issues, if indeed this is what they are doing.
Only idiots turn global level issues into political divide issues, if indeed this is what they are doing.
Exactly what they are doing and the whole purpose of it.
Then why are is this place bothering with shyt!
Exactly. The Jacinda regime’s response was no more ‘compassionate’ than any of the European responses, which is to say, it was weak and insufficient to actually stop the disease as they did in China and Vietnam, poorly thought out, and didn’t really consider the effects on the most marginalized people in society. We just had the advantage of being a relatively isolated island at the bottom of the world.
china and vietnam did not stop covid and had way more deaths than we have had .
The welding of doors sure helped.
Simply shows that the various ex-ministers were correct in not fronting up.
Once the ferals are exposed, we see their real agenda which obviously wasn’t to hear proper answers to proper questions which might allow us to prepare better for the future. They just wanted blood and having been denied, they go off the deep end.
It’s foot in mouth stuff really, as it always is with them.
Now this is wrong. A media outlet that puts ratings above all else, is one thing, a significant number of New Zealanders converging on parliament in order to converse with parliamentarians – and being denied this opportunity – this is another issue altogether, and a very, very significant one at that.
CONVERSE yeah right
Yes right, exactly right, Clive. It takes effort to converge on parliament, this is why we hardly ever see it, despite the laundry list of issues that we the people, have with our parliamentarians. And the whole point of that protest, especially, was to talk with our elected representatives.
No one, bar no one, except the elitist class and the politicians themselves, should be happy about politicians ignoring the concerns of their people.
Yes did you notice the difference though between the ferals and the Hikoi .One lot had a riot and did damage the other came assembled made their point then went home .No damage or fires or trash and other shit left behind .
Jacinda should have fronted that head on, the first couple of days. She should never have let Mallard anywhere near the sprinkler or sound system. THOSE actions made it much worse than it needed to be.
She let that get out of control but what’s the point of going over that, yet again? Mallard isn’t even here, is he?
The crowd also eventually attracted discontents of many stripes including those who sought to use the situation to promote their own agendas. Were they called to answer to the enquiry?
As I said, proper answers to proper questions, not just finding someone to blame for everything that annoyed people, who were still alive to be annoyed. Lucky them.
Kudos on a solid response. Mallard wasn’t a problem, even I found that funny. The lack of engagement was the problem, this is always the problem when any given issue arises.
Significant? A few thousand out of 5 million is 0.006%, they were just people with empty spaces between their ears, with no credible evidence, so no more use than the flat-Earth people. Mallard should have been sacked for his stupidity and the PR from the government should have been better; however, the fact remains that the protesters had nothing to contribute.
The protest was significant in size…when was the last time we saw a protest that size, that lasted that long to boot? And the protest itself represented a significant portion of NZ society, at the very least, 10 percent of us. I like the fact that you have at least touched upon the political side of this issue, but you cannot judge the veracity, or not, of the concerns the protesters wished to air, because a two-way discussion that could have alleviated or nullified their concerns, never took place…..
This an excerpt from official record: ****There was no clear leadership within the protest group, with several groups and activists involved in organising the protest including anti-vaccination groups “Voices for Freedom” and New Zealand Doctors Speaking Out on Science (NZDSOS), conspiracy theorist Brett Power, far right media outlet Counterspin Media, Bishop Brian Tamaki’s “The Freedoms & Rights Coalition” (TFRC), far right activist Kelvyn Alp, anti-vaccination activist Chantelle Baker, the right-wing New Conservative Party, and the neo-Nazi organisation Action Zealandia****
So A O I suggest no politician in their right mind would want to discuss anything with an unruly and openly violent mob subservient to a coterie of extreme social and political fringe elements.
Yes, the official record, aka, a projection of how politicians view anyone that protests against them. Oh, how easy it is to sweep aside any concerns of we, the people, doubly so, when it also we, the people that consistently buys the political spin. No wonder we have a world at war, a horrific genocide, growing pollution, widening economic inequality and governments that increasingly bow to big money interests over people interests….the simple fact of the matter is that we, the people, still believe in our government any way. A political sphere that has spat out Biden and Trump in recent times, yet we still place our politicians above ourselves! No wonder today’s world is the way it is, aye Phil!
That record is documentation of who the architects of the parliament protest are, it is publicly available and independent from political projection. If you want to get emotional about it then ponder who lit the fires, threw the rocks and had the rope and nooses on show to hang Jacinda Ardern. If these are the people that are so concerned with way things are then no wonder it all turns to crap, aye A O!
If its an official record, then it is political, thus it is a projection to state that there was no clear leadership to be seen, given officialdom were will aware of the many architects involved in the protest. In fact, its more than a projection, its an excuse, a way out of needing to address public concerns. Like I said before, oh how easy it is for politicians to ignore the concerns of the people…and now, now we get a peek at how they justify to themselves. their penchant for doing this.
More importantly, again, we, the people, still believe in the ‘official line’ anyway, even though, in this instance, that ‘line’ was never, ever allowed to be challenged. Hence why we have the world I depicted earlier. Our ability to challenge our politicians is weakening while their ability to shape the world into what we see today, is growing.
And the emotive language you use to describe those that protest, that attempt to fight back, that’s right out of the government handbook, and yet another sign of the hold that government has over most of us. But we, the people, or we that dare protest against government action or inaction, we are not your problem, Phil, we have no ability to shape your world and we sure as heck are not shaping today’s world. We are not your enemy. Peace.
My advice to you is do some genuine research, study some history, get your facts straight on who has hold over who, and then think about how you are going to be a voice that can be taken seriously. I have been protesting against political madness since the Vietnam war, Moruroa, Dawn raids, Bastian Point and the Springbok tour in 81 so please don’t lecture me on what you perceive my world to be or govt protest action.
I am awed by your protesting history. The greatest of respect to you, sir. Still, I believe that big money interests have corrupted goverment and I point to today’s world and the horrible events and alarming trends rising within it, to underline my beliefs.
I also point to what I believe to be an all too common goverment reaction to protests against them, in general, i.e. savage the messenger(s), highlight missteps, ignore the concerns – paint an unfavorable picture. Then amplify this picture via mainstream media, and soon enough, the public becomes conditioned to this picture, to the ‘official’ narrative. I see remnants of this messaging in you, I am sorry to say. Still, the bigger point here is, the ease in which goverment is able to nullify any push back against their actions, which further emphases why I believe the world to be want it is today – increasingly dire.
Still, again, I could be way off base, and what better way to find out, and to be educated, than by a person with your vast experience. So, if I may ask, what is, or in fact, does anybody have a hold over anyone, which I assume to mean – is there anybody or anything actually shaping us or the world/politics in general?
Cheers.
We are being shaped by greed and lust for power, those who don’t know the difference between right and wrong are their lawful prey.
Couldn’t have said it better Derek!
Interesting. So we are being shaped by greed and the wannabe powerful. And right from wrong is determined by, I assume, the aforementioned. Thus, those that do not achieve this lofty status (may) become their prey. Sounds right to me. Wish I could write in a manner that says the exact same thing, but clearly I have failed. Depressing.
It was summer, warm, and many just felt like an extended holiday. The people gathering seemed like their sort so off they went. They just needed an excuse and felt they had one. They felt like victims and suddenly they were getting the attention they craved.
I thought Mallard was an idiot. Anyone with half a brain would have tried to cool the situation, not inflame it further. After that, the protesters felt they had the right to really dig in.
Considering how little this present govt, takes note of ‘advice’ their response would have been much worse than Mallard’s childishness.
Try again. You are wrong Joy, but by all means, kick the people in the guts. We, the people, are our own worst enemy! No wonder the world accepts today’s world!
We had a significantly lower death rate than other Western countries so while it is fair to examine the cost and if things could be done better, they were working with the information they had so any criticism based on information that was not available at the time is almost meaningless and mostly reflects the vindictive nature of those complaining than a valid attempt to make things better in the future.
It’s all ancient history, but the far right hate trolls just can’t let it go. This is not an investigation in good faith of government decisons made at the time and their effectiveness in stopping the spread of the virus. It’s a public show trial. How dare any government put human lives ahead of selfish private business interests. These vengeful right wing hate trolls don’t want an inquiry, they want a public lynching, they want Labour government MPs at the time in the stocks to throw their rotten conspiracy theory canards at. Now they are sobbing that they didn’t get their way. Too bloody bad. Suck it up arseholes.
You’re a fool. No government ever asks a question they don’t know the answer to. All types – from fluffy duck caring inclusive just slightly left (adapting to the audience here) to the nasty meany stole my lunch money far far far far right (ie, slightly right or left of centre).
What don’t this dim-witted bunch of ZB trolls not get here? How many times do they have to be told that the Covid Royal Commission is SATISFIED with the hours of input from Labour! Can anyone be that simple? YES so I will repeat it – THE COVID ROYAL COMMISSION IS SATISFIED THAT THE 4 LABOUR MP’s HAVE ALREADY ‘FRONTED UP’ and with their responses. Why isn’t Winnie being made to ‘front up’ too? This ZB troll/Media crap is ‘Sh&t Stirring’ again, but worse still, it is wanton distraction as there is so much dumb stuff being RAMMED into legislation without any due process or care. Why are New Zealanders so STUPID? It’s like this CoC is running a race they are scared they may not finish – well keep going you morons – you’re right on track here.
Winston has more to answer to .It was he that was demanding that every toe rag passport grabber hurry back for free care for the next two years .He was then telling people to get tested and what ever else they needed to do .Then once he got the boot he went full feral and invested io full ALI hat mentality because it gave him a new base of voters because his former voters jumped ship and voted him out .
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