New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, a hard-line supporter of lockdowns vis-à-vis the coronavirus, was caught on a hot mic insulting the leader of the opposition with nasty language.
The exchange during which Ardern insulted David Seymour was prompted by Seymour confronting her, asking if Ardern could “give an example of her making a mistake, apologizing for it properly and fixing it,” The Guardian reported.
Ardern initially responded by admitting that the public had suffered from her “managed isolation” plan, but as she sat down, turned to her deputy Grant Robertson and told him Seymour was “such an arrogant p****.”
Seymour asked the speaker to urge Ardern to apologize and withdraw the comment, but it was fruitless since Arden had left the chamber.
Seymour said later that Ardern had texted him to apologize. “[She] said ‘I apologize, it’s not something I should have said,’” he acknowledged. “She said, as my mum would say, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it.”
“I agree with the sentiment and it is all good as far as I am concerned,” he continued. “I just said, thank you and I hope you have a very merry Christmas. At the end of the day, it’s not the end of the world.”
In August 2021, Ardern authorized a nationwide lockdown after a 58-year-old man tested positive for the virus in Auckland. Ardern initiated a “level 4” lockdown, in which “essential services” were left unaffected but schools, offices, and businesses had to close.
“I want to assure New Zealand that we have planned for this eventuality. Going hard and early has worked for us before,” Ardern insisted.
“We ask people to stay two meters away from anyone you pass, stay local, and do not congregate,” she stated. “Don’t talk to your neighbors. Please keep to your bubble.”
In October 2021, Ardern smiled as she acknowledged creating two different classes of people with different levels of freedom depending on whether they were vaccinated.
The New Zealand Herald reported Ardern had “announced the country would move into the new traffic light system when each District Health Board has 90 percent of its population with both doses of the vaccine.”
“So, you’ve basically said, this is gonna be like, well it’s almost like, and you probably don’t see it like this, [inaudible] two different classes of people, if you’re vaccinated or if you’re unvaccinated,” an interviewer prompted. “You have all these rights if you are vaccinated —”
“That it is what it is,” Ardern replied, smiling, “So, yep. Yep.”
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‘Don’t Talk To Your Neighbors’: New Zealand Enters Nationwide Lockdown Over Single COVID Case