Ouch

Sir Ian Taylor starts his open letter to Jacinda Ardern with praise for the initial Covid response but then he gets critical:

. . . People put politics aside and tried to help. Offering real solutions, safe, proven ways to save both lives and livelihoods. Business-led initiatives, technology-enabled tracking, controlled pilot programs. These were not abstract ideas. They were tested, they were ready, and they were offered in good faith. But they were dismissed. Not because they didn’t work, but because they didn’t fit the narrative.

That was the moment I realised, this wasn’t leadership anymore. It was brand management.

Ouch.

The turning point came for me on the day you featured on the cover of the New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, in designer clothes, smiling, styled, and celebrated. On that same day I received a heart-wrenching email from a father who had yet to meet his 7-month-old son.

He had been brought to New Zealand to contribute his much-needed technical expertise in challenging times for Aotearoa, but the border closed behind him, stranding his pregnant wife overseas. In the same week I had another message from a son trying to leave MIQ to be with his dying father. He had tested clear three times. The system still said no.

And these weren’t isolated stories. They were everywhere, if you took the time to listen. People reaching out for someone, anyone, to hear their call. Someone to be kind. These were New Zealanders, or people who had made this country their home, asking only for the chance to be with their families. To do what any of us would hope to do in a time of crisis. Their pain was real, and avoidable.

But we were no longer all in the waka together. Thousands had been cast adrift. Fathers kept from the birth of their children. Dying loved ones left without final goodbyes. Families cruelly separated by a system that, even when shown better ways to operate, refused to budge.

The brand that was so carefully nurtured at those 1:00 pm ‘single source of truth’ press conferences, reinforced internationally by features like your Vogue cover story, had matured into a global product, ready for sale. . . .

Ouch.

“They are us” has disappeared down the same dark hole as ‘be kind’, ‘the team of 5 million’ and “he wake eke noa – we are all in the waka together.”

Now only brand Jacinda remains, and you are back on the cover of those lifestyle magazines, interviews on radio and tv, and there – that image that has weighed on me over the past few weeks. The cover of A Different Kind of Power.

“He waka mō Ko tahi”. The journey is complete. The waka is now the waka for one.

And ouch again.

Criticism from political opponents is to be expected and isn’t usually taken personally.

But this is from a former admirer, it’s personal and if it was read by Ardern it would hurt.

Stuff, which published this letter, has also published feedback on it.

Fans of the former PM defend her, others agree with the letter.