Where Helen Clark Lite is the only salvation.

 

We have a problem.

It is not Covid. It is not the prospect of economic meltdown. Nor is it that the McDonald’s horrendous “Monopoly” commercial with its creepy front figure is back.

It is that Jacinda Ardern—Helen Clark Lite—has lost it. 

The current signs are that she, the government she leads/controls, and their collective Covid response are spiralling downward out of control. Unlinked community cases are growing daily in terms of numbers and areas, vaccination and testing rates among Maori are the lowest of any ethnic community in New Zealand, and there is a failure to acknowledge—let alone, accept—that there is a gang element at play here putting the rest of us at risk.

And on that last point, it literally comes close to home for me. For those who don’t live in New Zealand and may not know, two sex workers, both with Covid, used forged papers to illegally cross police checkpoints to travel from Auckland to Northland. It’s known that they were travelling through Northland over several days, but because they are being “uncooperative” when questioned, little is known about where exactly they went and whom they engaged with. It is widely alleged they have gang connections—something the prime minister initially denied but has since gone strangely silent about.

Despite the prime minister’s reticence, the evidence of gang connections is compelling and for the prime minister to deny that, or even not to entertain the idea, is deeply concerning and does raise the suspicion she is not being wholly truthful—that her too-hard basket is becoming increasingly full.

But let’s get back to the link between Jacinda Ardern and Helen Clark. It’s been widely reported that Ardern has a huge amount of respect for Clark and considers her something of a mentor. Nothing wrong with that. Nor is it wrong that she may want to follow in Clark’s footsteps and stride the world stage in some capacity—probably a post with the United Nations.

But here is why I don’t think that is going to happen.

First, she is not Helen Clark. I was never a great admirer of Clark, but I knew she had gravitas and a fierce intellect. She is not the most charismatic person I have met, and I have met her several times, including being on the wharf with her the day the Rainbow Warrior was bombed, but she had presence and used that effectively without resorting to photo-ops. There is no superficiality about her, but there was a decisiveness that guaranteed this country of ours a clear direction.

Jacinda Ardern has none of that—offers none of that. Instead, we have someone who leads a shoddy, incompetent government that is almost entirely dependent on the superficiality of her television presence and the ministrations of a compliant heavily funded media to survive. Add to that last point, an equally incompetent Opposition.

I know some of you will disagree with that assessment. I can’t change that. But I do invite you to answer one question: In the four years of Ardern’s coalition and then Labour Government what has she successfully achieved? I said successfully. The Covid response? Initially commendable but turning to custard after the failure of elimination. Mental Health? Child Poverty? Affordable Housing? Homeless? The Health Sector? Policing? No significant achievements there.

What about her response to the Mosque Shootings and White Island?

Those last two only beg a second question: What did she do then that would be different to the response of any other prime minister in the same circumstances? You don't know. I don’t know. We’ll never know.

What I do know is that some serious questions are being asked about her competence, her credibility, her motivations, and her transparency and I have yet to see that, to this extent, in more than 49 years involved with politics.

And not just here in New Zealand. She is losing traction overseas where the media are railing against her and her perceived lack of policy and flexibility to handle the ever-evolving Delta pandemic.

Bloomberg once rated us the best country in the world in terms of our Covid response. In September 21 this year we were 38^th and in freefall.

Jacinda Ardern is not the person we hoped she would be. She could have been. She could have been our second Helen Clark, a true statesperson, rather than a lite version trailing in Clark’s shadow.

It’s a shame really. It was a shame that we didn’t give her three more years in Opposition to hone her leadership skills, to get her frontbench up to speed and eject those who were never going to make it.

But that didn’t happen and despite a wish not to be pessimistic I think we are about to see the consequences of that.