I attended Te Pai Court in Waitakere last Wednesday where I had the privilege of watching a presentation on the Wellbeing budget.
Local MPs Carmel Sepuloni, Phil Twyford, Peeni Henare and Deborah Russell all spoke. They were committed, knew their stuff and presented really well.
Jacinda was also there.
Much as I like and admire the others she was streets ahead of them. Her knowledge of the subject matter, her empathy and her awareness stood her apart.
I have known a few Labour leaders. David Lange was exceptional in his ability to reach out to people, David Cunliffe had huge intellect and an ability to explain complex problems in very simple terms. Jacinda has the best of both of them.
The right are struggling to work out what to do. Currently their strategy is to attack her over every glib attack line thrown up on right wing twitter. So the day after her Waitakere speech she visited Marlborough where she again spoke about the wellbeing budget, this time to the local Chamber of Commerce.
This caused the right to get into a lather.
Why you may ask.
Well instead of doing this in their view she should have jetted over to the opposite side of the world to take part in a photo opportunity to mark the 75th anniversary of D-day.
Newstalk ZB’s Andrew Dickens started things off four days ago. From the Newstalk ZB website:
New Zealand’s Governor General Dame Patsy Reddy attended on behalf of the New Zealand Government, with no appearance from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern or Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters.
Andrew Dickens asked why neither of them had gone to the event, when other world leaders – including Australia’s Scott Morrison – had attended.
Dickens noted that, as far as he could see, Ardern had not attended a D-Day events in New Zealand, which left him “surprised and horrified”.
“I want to find out what she thinks is so important on the 75th anniversary of D-Day that she should be in Marlborough talking about her budget and not at the National War Memorial. It seems like the call is getting worse.”
Then Mike Hosking had a rant about her this morning. In the printed version he said this:
” … when the explanation came it sadly, yet again, gave you the sense she is either fantastically out of touch, or really isn’t all that invested in the job (or perhaps doesn’t quite get the weight of the position).
“I can’t be every where at once.” That was it, and that is Ardern in a nutshell.
Stating the bleeding obvious, no she can’t be everywhere at once, none of us can. But the places we are at, at any given time, is decided generally on a basis of importance: we prioritise.
Every parent has been through it a million times. We can’t be everywhere our kids want us, our employers want us, our partners want us. This if life, so we work out what matters.
I would argue D-Day matters. And it matters more than what she decided mattered more, a meeting in Marlborough spruiking her Wellbeing Budget. In fact she might be the last one standing arguing that a meeting spruiking a Budget beats the commemoration of a significant day in history.
Yep photo opportunities at the opposite end of the world are way more important than bedding in what will probably be the most important of her political career, not to mention the most important for tens of thousands of kids living in poverty.
But Hosking and Dickens and talkback radio land think she should have gone for the photo op.
This speaks volumes about what their priorities are.
We on the left used to be accused of suffering from Deranged Key Syndrome.
I think the right wing equivalent is clearly appearing.
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