Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: I see nothing's changed in camp Jacinda

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

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3d ago 2:27

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Looks like nothing's changed in camp Jacinda, has it?

You will get no admission that she and her Government got anything wrong during Covid, from what I can gather.

Now, this is my disclaimer - I haven't actually read the entire memoir just yet. But from what I've skim read and from what I've read and heard in the reviews, and what I've read and heard with her interviews promoting the book, if you are looking for her to admit that she got anything wrong at all during Covid, you're not going to find it.

The closest thing I found is on page 309, where she admits that she made 'imperfect decisions', but that's really underselling the massive balls-up that was our Covid response, wasn't it?

What you get instead is multiple excuses, heaps of verbal fluff to avoid answering hard questions and, regularly, the defence that we saved 20,000 lives.

Here's an example - she gave an interview to RNZ's Jessie Mulligan where he asked her about vaccine mandates, which we now know, of course, was a huge mistake that cost people their jobs simply because they wouldn't get the jab in which the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Covid said damaged 'social cohesion'.

Would she agree with that, he asked.

She said she wouldn't argue with their findings. He then asked her, did vaccine mandates save any lives?

She said - she's not the one that can answer that question for you, although apparently she can tell you that she did save 20,000 lives, she just can't talk about this particular instance.

And then she goes on to say that the Commission did also say that vaccine mandates were important in areas like healthcare and so on, and we're relatively limited, but again, I won't argue with their findings.

So, not a yes, not a no - and definitely not an apology.

Now, I don't actually know why I was expecting anything else from her. I mean, this was a feature of Jacinda during Covid.

She would never say she did anything wrong, which is why it got worse and worse as she barrelled full steam ahead in the wrong direction at times - because apparently going full steam ahead in the wrong direction was better than admitting she was headed in the wrong direction.

And of course she got things wrong. I mean, anyone would have. She made thousands and thousands of decisions over multiple years. She would 100 percent have got at least one of those decisions wrong, do you not think?

It would be nice just to hear her admit it, because I think it would help some of us - and I'm talking about me here - to forgive her.

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