MEDIAWATCH: Edgelord Paddy Gower supports Captain Hindsight Ian Taylor in latest Stuff attack on Jacinda’s legacy
Paddy and Ian got together to complain about why they can’t shit on Jacinda without readers complaining…
Ian Taylor: What shocked me most about the fallout over criticising Jacinda Ardern
Kiwi entrepreneur Sir Ian Taylor is standing by his criticism of Dame Jacinda Ardern’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Yawn.
Look, I’m not sure what the fuck Paddy does anymore.
Like, I’m not sure what his point of existing is?
Is he a wellness guru now?
A positive news champion?
The face for a new Health Insurance/Mortgage App?
Who knows, currently he seems to be an Edgelord by channeling Ian Taylor’s Captain Hindsight routine.
For the millionth time, we were running blind in a once in a century pandemic, were the mistakes?
OF COURSE THERE WERE, but the stats speak for themselves…
The feral anti vax lunatics scream the vaccine was made by a shadowy one world government child molesting Satanic cult who used 5G technology to weaken our immune systems.
Sure they did.
The truth is Jacinda and Labour’s political courage and Covid leadership saved 20 000 lives…
New Zealand’s Covid-19 response saved 20,000 lives – research
New Zealand’s restrictions during the pandemic saved the lives of about 20,000 people, according to new research.
The paper by 16 leading doctors and scientists, published in the New Zealand Medical Journal on Friday, is calling for all serious respiratory infections – including influenza and RSV – to be treated the same way.
…and it resulted in NZ bucking life expectancy trend during COVID-19…
NZ bucked life expectancy trend during COVID-19 – study
“These findings provide further evidence supporting the effectiveness of the elimination strategy for minimising mortality from the pandemic,” Otago University epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker told RNZ.
New Zealand has been praised for its elimination strategy in the early stages of the pandemic. It kept Covid numbers down until vaccines became widely available.
New Zealand in 2020 and 2021 also experienced very little influenza.
By the end of 2021, 90 percent of the eligible population had been double vaccinated.
It was not until 2022, after the government had relaxed pandemic controls, that the country had its first major outbreak, fueled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
In 2022, deaths in New Zealand were up 10.4 percent on the previous year – the biggest annual increase since 1918 (following the influenza pandemic).
There were two obvious contributors to the increase: the pandemic and the country’s ageing population, according to Statistics New Zealand.
In total, nearly 6000 New Zealanders have died with Covid, according to the latest Te Whatu Ora data.
But compared with other nations, New Zealand is said to have got off lightly.
“[The paper] reinforces other evidence that New Zealand’s response was extremely effective at minimising mortality during the pandemic,” Baker said.
…the feral anti vaxxers who have been tricked led and manipulated by Social Media Hate algorithms scream NZ has had excess mortality when that is just garbage.
Economically, Jacinda’s leadership was far better than the Right pretend it is…
Shutting down the engines of growth
Greg Sheridan writing in The Australian wailed,
“All her economic instincts were bad, all her strategic instincts were bad. She had a great desire to undo productive economic reform and remove or shut down the engines of economic growth for what should be a nation of limitless opportunity.”
James Macpherson on the Bolt Report claimed,
“Jacinda Ardern wants to be remembered for being empathetic and kind. Well, she won’t be remembered for building a strong economy.”
The Daily Mail’s Guy Adams opined that,
“Back in New Zealand, where this progressive superstar has never been quite so popular as she has overseas, voters are facing a cost-of-living crisis, spiralling crime rates and soaring inflation. Housing is increasingly unaffordable and the economy is on the verge of a recession …”
The Flat White column at The Spectator asserted,
“Labour is aware that a failing economy is bad for the polls, with Ardern previously overseeing a pay-cut in solidarity.”
We now have annual GDP growth for all 38 wealthy OECD members. New Zealand now ranks fourth, the highest ranking since records have been kept. See grey chart, below.
At 6.4 per cent, New Zealand’s annual economic growth, far from being “on the verge of a recession” is double the rate of the Netherlands, South Korea, Italy, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. It is three times that of the USA and four times Japan, Germany, France and Switzerland.
When Ardern became prime minister in October 2017, New Zealand’s annual GDP growth was a modest 3.0 per cent which ranked 19th in the OECD.
Employment
The jobless rate has been at 3.4 per cent or lower since June 2021. Between September 2021 and March 2022, the rate was 3.2 per cent, the lowest since records have been kept.
That ranks fifth in the OECD, beaten only by Switzerland, Norway, Denmark and Japan.
Job participation had reached an all-time high of 71.2 per cent just before Ardern took office. She kept this within what seems to be an optimum band between 69.9 and 71.2 per cent throughout her tenure, until the third quarter last year, when it reached a new record high of 71.7 per cent.
Labour productivity was a modest 124.1 when Ardern took office. This has increased steadily since then, except for a blip during the Covid recession, and hit a new peak of 132.02 in the latest quarter.
Wages have increased satisfactorily from NZ$30.51 per hour in Ardern’s first quarter to NZ$37.93 in the last measure published.
Further fun facts and figures
New Zealand’s current inflation rate is 7.2 per cent, just below the peak of 7.3 in the previous quarter. This is well below the OECD average of 11.6 per cent, ranking around eleventh. Given the global challenges, it is quite false to characterise this as “soaring”.
Ardern’s Government has shone in budget discipline, with healthy budget surpluses in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The pandemic recession year caused a deficit of 7.3 per cent of GDP, with that improving substantially in 2021 to just 1.3 per cent of GDP.
Housing approvals
The Australian’s Greg Sheridan wrote:
“In substance, Ardern was a flop … She promised the government would build 100,000 homes, it built barely 1000.”
We read earlier the Daily Mail hack bemoaning “Housing is increasingly unaffordable …”
Well, according to Stats NZ, total housing starts have risen in every Ardern year and boomed over the last two. In the first five years of the previous National Government, housing approvals averaged 3.7 per year per one thousand residents. Through Ardern’s five years, they averaged 8.2 per year. See blue chart, below.
Economic Freedom
Finally, the rankings on economic freedom compiled by Heritage Foundation in the USA give the Ardern administration huge bragging rights.
Heritage ranked New Zealand the top economy in the OECD in four of the last five years. Global ranking has fluctuated between second and fifth.
If the right wing media read these numbers when the Nationals were in office, they would have proclaimed them from the mountain tops.
…you can’t pretend that Jacinda didn’t have serious policy wins and strong results.
The facts remains that Jacinda and Labour saved us from a public health catastrophe over Covid and we repaid that courage by electing a hard right racist climate denying beneficiary bashing Government.
We are our own worst enemies in New Zealand.
As for this…
Dame Jacinda Ardern says she will give evidence at Covid-19 Inquiry
Dame Jacinda Ardern says she will provide evidence to assist the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Covid-19 response.
This week there was speculation about whether the former prime minister, who is living in the United States, would be called to give evidence at the inquiry, which resumed in Auckland this week.
A spokesperson told The Post she had every intention of providing evidence, if asked to.
…excellent!
My advice is that if she is asked to speak, she should come in as an avenging angel with hellfire.
Put the Kindness to one side, and instead go full righteous fury!
She should attack the anti-vaxx witch hunt for what it is and make the most aggressive defence for putting public health before Death Cult Capitalism.
She should unleash with the incandescent rage off the Just.
Put these snivelling little Quislings who would sell so cheaply our shared sacrifice of Lockdown.
Increasingly having independent opinion in a mainstream media environment which mostly echo one another has become more important than ever, so if you value having an independent voice – please donate here.
This I agree with 100% >
My advice is that if she is asked to speak, she should come in as an avenging angel with hellfire.
Put the Kindness to one side, and instead go full righteous fury!
She should attack the anti-vaxx witch hunt for what it is and make the most aggressive defence for putting public health before Death Cult Capitalism.
She should unleash with the incandescent rage off the Just.
Put these snivelling little Quislings who would sell so cheaply our shared sacrifice of Lockdown.
After all the covid misinfo and disinfo was spread by only 12 USA anti vaccine bloggers who were and are only in it for the money.
One of them is now the USA’s Health Minister.
https://www.npr.org/2021/05/13/996570855/disinformation-dozen-test-facebooks-twitters-ability-to-curb-vaccine-hoaxes
She should come in firing B52 atom bombs.
Dam right she should and fuck the kindness just give them the full blast .
“Put these snivelling little Quislings who would sell so cheaply our shared sacrifice of Lockdown.”
Music to the ears of the moneyed class, my man, nothing but the sweetest of sweet, sickly music. The people, looking inwards at each other rather than outwards and to what was being done to all of us. Sweet fucken music to ruling class taringas.
“Is he a wellness guru now?”
No. the pair of them a simply look-at-moi. look-at-moi divas.
I gave up counting the number of I-I-I’s when Peddy acts as a locum on Morning Report or elsewhere.
Why RNZ has anything to do with Peddy is beyond me. Far better to rescue one or two others – the pair of them are ‘sorted’
I thought sir Ian might be an ok bloke ,but how wrong I was .He is just another entitled Im sorted arsehole .He is only wingeing because he was unable to fleece us tax payers for millions in the pandemic .As for paddy he is another Paul Henry /Hosking type who is full of shit and a legend in his own lunch time .
I note on stuff this morning that the wonderful Verity likens Jacinda to Churchill .Maybe she will be back like he was after being voted out and the voters realised they had made a massive cockup .
The spiteful ‘Jacinda knockers’ are showing how out of touch they are with reality and while they are, of course, entitled to their opinions, they don’t seem to be able to factor in that there was no ‘blue print’ or ‘recipe’ for the Covid disaster dumped on us from overseas. She did her very best and will go down in history as being one of NZ’s BEST PM’s when the likes of Holyoake, Marshall, Bolger, Key – and certainly the abominable Luxon – have been forgotten. It’s simply sour grapes and mostly pushed along by the embittered male chauvinists. Jacinda hold your head up high – I for one am extremely proud and grateful for your genuine efforts to keep so many of us SAFE & ALIVE!
well said 100% agree
You left out Muldoon, Kiwi Keith and Gentleman Jack were the last of the tolerable National leaders. Holyoake at least told the Yanks to bugger off when they demanded NZ send conscripts to Vietnam. I will always be grateful for that.
Yes, she didn’t discriminate, she even kept the wrong-headed righties alive but apparently that wasn’t good enough. There’s no pleasing them.
Labour waited far to long before they closed the border.
They should have closed the border before there was a local outbreak.
One hopes our officials will learn from that mistake.
Nailed it. An actually effective, Chinese-style lockdown, which ACTUALLY locked things down while supporting workers, as opposed to what they did, which didn’t halt spread of the virus here, would have saved lives.
If they closed the border before covid hit us, we may not have needed to lookdown.
I don’t support what Chins did – see link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K0YFQ8Ww5A
China
If you look back to that time you will find that Winston was the one who demanded the border stay open .Remember he was on TV everyday telling people to catch the next flight to NZ ASAP and we will look after you for free .Hence the influx of people into NZ .
Winston wasn’t in charge, Gordon.
It was the Government that announced the country’s borders would close to all travellers except returning New Zealanders.
But the point is they waited too long.
And in doing so, put lives at risk.
That’s not true.
If the world haddone as well as New Zealand, the pandemic would’ve been over by November 3020.
Sadly, New Zealand’s exceptionalism was not replicated.
What’s not true, Henry?
Anybody want to talk about the mistakes made?
Before the vaccine was available, why didn’t we make use of rapid antigen tests as a way to reduce transmission?
From a personal perspective I dislike Labour and do not rate Jacinda that much BUT given the unprecedented effect of this virus and the lack of any historical references they did the best job of protecting the nation that they could.
If they were more competent, they could have done better.
We could see the pandemic was going to hit us at some stage. Therefore, one would’ve presumed the Government with have acted with pace. They didn’t.
They did when they finally decided to act, but they left that far too late.
BECAUSE they were not available hence the reason we were able to go to testing places setup in the community ,remember the long ques of people waiting for the swabs to be taken .The rapid tests were being developed at the same time as the vaccines remember ?.
Those things are not off the shelf like panadol and your run of the mill medications .Also billions of other people were waiting for them to be developed and then manufactured .
Correct, GW.
Funny how some people have so quickly lost track of the true time line of the pandemic.
That’s not entirely correct, Ximon.
While rapid antigen tests were not being used in NZ, they were available.
So the question is why didn’t we implement them sooner?
And why did we wait till there was an outbreak before closing the border?
RATs were on the market before the vaccine, Gordon.
Spain rolled out rapid tests for covid in 2020.
The first Covid-19 vaccine in New Zealand was in 2021
Those queuing in line for the PCR testing swabs faced a risk of catching covid from someone else in the queue.
Because the rapid antigen tests were not available until well after the pandemic had kicked off.
Also, testing and self-isolation would b useless when the borders are open and people are moving around the motu.
We absolutely had to stay locked down until we had adequate measures in place.
No. That is not entirely correct. See my reply to you above
Now, now. Whatever you say about Jacinda, at least she didn’t murder 3 million Bengalis just for fun.
Ardern is history, time to move on.
Swamp dwellers and ali hat brigade will never move on
We were trying ‘to move on’ until some clot decided we needed this enquiry.
So, we’re having this enquiry because wrong-headed righties demanded it. They want to see Jacinda hung out to dry, it’s as simple as that. If Soyman Bridges had been PM at the time, we wouldn’t have ‘needed’ this enquiry.
Peoples’ memories are quite warped as we see from comments above about what happened when, so we aren’t expecting any vindication for the Labour Govt. There may be a grudging acknowledgement at the end that they probably did as well as could be expected at the time. Those of us with a brain, knew that already. We didn’t need this enquiry.
As usual, we are trying to placate the shallow grizzlers.
I think Paddy would be more of a natural fit with the ZB audience rather than RNZ.
He seems a bit thick.
Just another narc. wanting constant attention. To call it journalism is a stretch.