Summarised by Centrist
In a LinkedIn post, economist and author Ananish Chaudhuri accuses Jacinda Ardern of escaping proper scrutiny by hiding behind accusations of misogyny – and says her leadership record deserves sharper public judgment.
“Play the ball, not the woman,” critics say. But Chaudhuri writes, “The woman is the ball. There is no distinction.” He lists what he sees as political and ethical failings throughout Ardern’s career, starting with the 2017 election. “She received 37% of the vote against Bill English’s 45% before Winston Peters crowned her prime minister.”
Chaudhuri argues Ardern was “headed for defeat” in 2020 until COVID gave her a second wind. He condemns her government’s harsh border and lockdown rules, including MIQ charges and warrantless home entry, as “taking away our basic rights.” Kiwis, he says, were “encouraged to snitch on our neighbours,” while families remained divided and a pregnant New Zealander was “left at the mercy of the Taliban.”
He also challenges the legality and logic of the vaccine mandate: “Knowing fully well that the vaccine did not prevent transmission, she implemented a bogus vaccine mandate.”
While protesters were labelled a “river of filth,” he says, thousands of Ministry of Health workers quietly received exemptions.
The 2020 election, according to Chaudhuri, was distorted by Labour’s daily televised briefings while the opposition couldn’t campaign: “Not surprising [Ardern] claimed an absolute majority.”
Chaudhuri blames Ardern’s COVID response for today’s economic fallout: excess deaths from untreated illnesses, inflation from “printing money,” and rising inequality between white-collar and blue-collar workers. “We shut down local butchers and greengrocers to benefit two Australian-owned supermarket chains.”
He concludes that public anger is not driven by sexism but substance. “The aversion toward Ardern,” he writes sarcastically, “must be misogyny!”
