The scoops were served up faster than a midsummer beachside dairy when Jacinda Ardern spoke to Gone By Lunchtime’s Toby Manhire to recap the year. Click here for the full story.
Asked to pluck out a definitive, or memorable day from the Covid response, Ardern recalled the “that moment when I found out we had our first case of Covid in New Zealand”... But the moments that stuck out the most were not just the achieving of milestones, but the setbacks, real and false alarms.
Asked what she might bung in our 2020 time capsule, she said “this is not going to be what you expect: a whiteboard marker. It would require explanation for someone in the future. During the lockdown, I had a whiteboard in the office and that is where I tracked our case numbers, our testing numbers, also our stocks of testing equipment, our PPE equipment and reserves...So that whiteboard was a very big deal for me.”
Asked whether the next CEO of Oranga Tamariki should in principle be Māori, she said “I think whatever we do in Oranga Tamariki has to be responsive and meet the needs of those most deeply affected by the organisation. So you’ll see that we have a member of our Māori caucus [Kelvin Davis] now the minister for Oranga Tamariki. That is a reflection of us knowing that we have to make sure this system is working for those that it currently most deeply affects.”
Asked about the "state largesse" of providing free travel for gold card holders between Auckland and Waiheke Island she said it was hard to draw a distinction between visitors and those living on the island ... who use it very legitimately to come back to Auckland for medical check-ups and things they need to do ... but ”it’s not something I’ve given formal consideration to, I have to say.”
During one question the PM had to hold the phone away for a quick coughing fit. “I’m just drinking ground coffee straight,” she explained. “I am back on the coffee", she said.“ This is a hangover from lockdown.”
Asked what the pundit class, those demanding swift change, get wrong or misunderstand about politics, Ardern said it was “totally understandable [but] one of the things that is probably for me the toughest is there’s often very little distance between us and some of the things that many call for in terms of pace around climate change, housing, child poverty. These are all areas where we totally agree on the principle and the destination.”
The challenge was to “make sure things stick”, she said. Having witnessed the reforms of the 1990s, “What I want to do, I want it to last. I don’t want there to be political cycles to some of the changes that need to stick, and that means, a, trying to build consensus, and, b, doing it in a way that’s sustainable.”
Other questions were on what hair straighteners she used and whether she liked a Tropical Snow which is not really a Fruju. Read the full article for the answers.
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