Jacinda is loved in Australia in a way that must really frustrate Scott Morrison. Two weeks before the last Aussie election she was Australia’s most trusted politician. Newshub had the details:
Two weeks out from the general election, Australia says its most trusted politician is Jacinda Ardern.
In a poll by Millward Brown, 1400 Australians were asked to score 12 politicians across six areas: relevance, integrity, shared values, commitment, affinity and follow-through.
The clear winner of the ‘Believability Index’ was New Zealand’s Ardern, who emerged with a score of 77/100 – streets ahead of second-place getter Penny Wong, who is Labor’s leader of the Senate.
Former deputy Liberal leader Julie Bishop and Labor deputy leader Tanya Plibersek came in third and fourth respectively, meaning the most trustworthy politicians in Australia are all women.
The bottom five included Australia’s former Prime Minister Tony Abbott and current Prime Minister Scott Morrison, 7 News reports.
Her recent trip across the ditch cemented her standing. Last Friday she had 2,000 attend the Melbourne Town Hall and give her a rockstar welcome.
And she has used remarkably undiplomatic in discussing Australia’s policy of deporting Kiwis who have lived in Australia for decades but have been deported sometimes for reputational reasons. She described the policy as being corrosive on our relationship with Australia and unjust.
Morrison was the architect of the policy. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has refined the use of the powers to a particularly vile level. I described the effects of the policy in this earlier post:
The Australians are upset with Andrew Little and are throwing Donald Trump type tantrums to show their displeasure.
What has he done to attract their displeasure? He accused the Australian Government of having a deportation policy with what appears to have a venal, political strain.
The policy relates to a 2014 law change which increased the Minister of Immigration’s powers to cancel the visas of Kiwis, including those who have lived in Australia for extended periods of time who who are deemed are not of “good character”.
The change of policy has meant that many kiwis have been thrown into custody, separated from family and removed to a country they may not have any links with.
The cases are numerous but include a 17 year old held in an adult detention centre for non violent offending against International Treaties protecting young people, as well as the case of Ko Hapua and Lee Tepuia, both who were deported because they belonged to motorcycle gangs that were not actually illegal.
Tepuia’s case in particular is jaw dropping. He had lived in Australia since 2005 and his youngest daughter was an Australian. His forcible removal from his wife and four children has had a devastating effect on him.
And he kept winning in Court yet despite this Dutton kept cancelling his visa and not telling him why.
Good on Jacinda for calling Australia out on this issue. In terms of inhumanity it is up there with the American policy of separating kids coming over the border from their parents and losing track of them.
Her bravery as well as her actions following the Christchurch massacre have motivated the starting of a petition seeking that she be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.
But the Australian right wing media are having none of this.
From Sophie Bateman at Newshub:
During an on-air discussion of the deportation of New Zealand-born criminals living in Australia, Sky News Australia host Peta Credlin brought up the subject of a potential award for Ardern.
“What’s this rumour that she’s sort of in contention for a Nobel Peace Prize for that work in Christchurch?” she said.
“If Christchurch equals Nobel Peace Prize and all Obama really had to do was win the election, basically just get out of bed, and he got one as well – aren’t we devaluing something that used to be very revered?”
President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, less than a year after taking office, for his international diplomacy and anti-nuclear vision.
Guest Dr Jeremy Sammut, a director at libertarian think tank The Centre for Independent Studies, agreed with Credlin’s dismissal.
“I think that’s undoubtedly true, and I think unfortunately for a long time the credibility of the Nobel Prize has been undermined, particularly by the decision to give it to President Obama before he’d literally done anything or hardly had his feet under the desk,” he said. “So I think that’s a real issue.”
In the same broadcast, commentator Gemma Tognini accused Ardern of flaunting her “moral posture” during her visit to Australia.
“It’s very, very cute for her to come to another country and morally posturise the way she has been,” she told Credlin.
“I don’t know if it were in reciprocal circumstances whether it would be tolerated nor appreciated.”
Credlin is the former Chief of Staff for Tony Abbott. Tongini thinks that the science behind climate change is still being contested, that there is some sort of war being engaged on men, and that support for families with kids is wrong so her placement on the political spectrum can be identified readily. And Sammut thinks that poor kids should be adopted out.
It is like asking Michelle Boag, Mike Hosking and Hannah Tamaki what they think about Ardern getting a Nobel Peace Prize. Of course they will think it is a bad idea.
This is another example of how the media system is broken. Openly partisan hacks attacking just because they can. Huge egos engaging in personality attacks and feeding prejudice because this is also profitable.
And they should focus on the real issues. Like how 1,700 long term residents of Australia with family and kids permanently established in Australia are being arrested and jailed and sent to a country they have no link to sometimes because of nothing more than the quality of their friends.
There has to be a better way …
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