Winners & Losers from Legal challenges & Fridays Data Dump & Leak

So on Friday there was a giant dump of Official Information Data looking at all the decisions the Government has made to date over the pandemic and on the same day someone leaked media advice that was sent to Ministers. This follows a legal challenge on the legality of the lock down until the second Public Health Notice.

Both the legal challenge,  Data Dump & Leak have political winners and losers – here’s the run down:

WINNERS:

Democracy: We Win! This enormous amount of data detailing all the decisions the Government made during this pandemic is a treasure trove of information and facts that Journalists can delve into. Quite frankly, this is our system working and what it shows is a Government hell bent on doing the best for NZ. If you had quietly doubted that Labour and Jacinda weren’t up to this moment, touring through the dump gives you real insight to their demand for compassion and safety above all. The moment is being over run by right wing conspiracy theories of Che Jacinda taking over the country with a secret socialist police state, I mean – IF ONY, but history will take its time to read that data dump and see Jacinda and her teams leadership for what it was, good people doing the best they could and succeeding in protecting NZ from a public health nightmare.

Jacinda: By dumping on Friday afternoon followed by the Level 2 announcement due Monday, she keeps hold of the narrative which is more important than ever because the story under Level 2 is far more complex. Under Level 4 it was simple, stay home, with Level 2 it becomes far more convoluted and that explains why the media advisory was for everyone to shut up and allow her to be the only voice.

Civil Liberties: What a lot of critics of the legality issue seem to miss was that it was the Police themselves who rejected Crown Laws definitions. They came forward and said that they didn’t believe they had the legal powers the Government beloved they did and the government responded with a second Public Health Notice. Most people get that the Government was rushing through ill fitting legislation to combat an unprecedented health threat and will be politically forgiving come election day, b-u-t it is still a good idea to have all the information available made public on legal advice because history is watching and it’s important for the record.

 

LOSERS:

Hysterical right wing pundits claiming a Left wing Police State: Look, I more than anyone wants Che Jacinda taking over the country with a secret socialist police state & the Twitter Right’s feral tweet storms predicting the unfurling of a huge red flag to symbolise the coup excites me, but I fear their claims of Communist revolt are premature.

Idiot Staff Member who gave Ministers smug spin lines: What fucking moron from head office (I actually know who it was) thought that it was a good idea to email those types of instructions to MPs Parliamentary Staff? You don’t write anything like that down! You telephone everyone to make sure there isn’t a copy! What is this? Amateur hour? Say these things on the phone, not an email clown!

NZ Government: The leak shows that there is a mole inside Parliamentary Staff, they should be hunting this down now.

Media: Most NZers are so grateful towards Jacinda they see a lot of questions being asked by the media as a personal slap in the face and the Government are simply avoiding talking to them altogether by going on Facebook and speaking live. The idea that the Attorney General of NZ would go on bloody Facebook of all things to interview himself over the legality of locking the entire country down would be laughable, yet here we are. Which leads me to the real loser here – us.

Our Collective Patience: Look, we get this was unprecedented and we get the Government did all they could to protect us by installing a medically induced Police State for a couple of weeks there, but arrogantly telling MPs to not talk to media because they are beyond reproach and throwing procedural tantrums over screwing up the legality for lockdown is starting to get on our wick, sort it out because what comes next with the economy is going to truly test us.

Early serological studies estimate 7-10% of populations have been exposed so far. Strap yourselves in because this pandemic has only just begun.

Kiwis will forgive Jacinda of any rush job on process as the mountain of the dead from America and the UK overshadows everything else.

 

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