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Our Prime Minister showed the unparalleled power of “optics” when she donned a hijab after the tragic mosque shootings in Christchurch and embarked on a hug fest. I’m not questioning the sincerity of her feelings: merely pointing out how hugely important appearances are.
So this week, when she berated us from the propaganda pulpit in Wellington, looking disappointed, bedraggled and under pressure, taking aim at us for what she described as her “frustration” with us for being such bad children, it was never going to go down well – and it didn’t. Worse, she actually singled out some specific members of our community and made them look very bad. Not a good look for the leader of the so-called “team of 5 million” to be singling out members of the team but then, when it turns out she’d had her facts completely wrong, she disappeared. Too busy to front up, and her minder of the day, Hipkins, was quick to close down any questions on the subject.
The “optics” which Ms Ardern is so good at in kindergartens, morning tea groups, schools and assorted other places of little real consequence have gone a long way towards making her the glittering fairy dust Princess of New Zealand.
A great leader has the ability to recognise their own failings and confront them openly and honestly.
Imagine the effect of an honest and straight apology at a press conference. You know the kind of thing: “Earlier this week in a moment of frustration I said some things I shouldn’t have said and I really do want to apologise from the bottom of my heart to the families who were doing exactly what the authorities asked them to do. My comments were out of line and I really am sorry.”
Twenty four hours of news coverage of the apology, the truth told and an injustice put right; then case closed. It would be forgotten as we slide back to level 2 and get on with our lives.
Except that we have long memories and, come election time, the electorate might choose to remember that the leader showed integrity under pressure and made the right call. Instead, what will we recall? Yet another inept response on top of all the others.
A year ago when we went into our first lockdown, it was an excessive response but we were prepared to cut the government some slack. None of us knew quite what we were dealing with and the suggestion that more than 80,000 New Zealanders could die was a pretty good reason to do something. That the modelling was so completely wrong was something we didn’t know at the time.
BUT WE DO KNOW IT NOW.
A year down the track and we know much more than we did a year ago. Yet the government response remains exactly the same. The same emergency levels, the same pointless rules that all of us know are futile – and they wonder why the public are losing interest.
The virus doesn’t know what time it is. If the “breakout” that threw Auckland into level 3 at 6 am Sunday was real, then the lockdown should have started immediately. Why give this “tricky little virus” an eight-hour start?
Seriously, either it’s a problem or it isn’t.
And then, to allow all and sundry to leave Auckland and return home to wherever in the country they came from. I had half a dozen friends from Christchurch up in Auckland for sporting events – they all got out on flights on Sunday.
How does that work? Our largest city in lockdown because this virus is so dangerous and people are travelling all over the country after being in Auckland, in the thick of it.
I repeat: Either it’s a problem or it isn’t, but it’s hard to take the authorities seriously when they are as erratic and inconsistent as a pubescent teenager’s hormones.
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