You just need to look at the expression on her face to get a sense of the nightmare the govt was getting ready to inflict on people who didn't go along with their policies. All in the name of 'safety' and layered with a quasi-pained passive aggression, that it was "tough love", "for your own good" and "you'll thank me later". Classic PMC liberalism.
'Interviewer: So you basically said, this is going to be like well... it's almost like - you probably don't see it like this - the two different classes of people: if you're vaccinated, or if you're unvaccinated you have all these rights, if you are vaccinated...
JA: That is what it is. So, yep, yep.
Interviewer: Can you describe, as you were previously hoping not to be able to - not to have to do that, I guess when we still look like we could maintain elimination across the whole country, I guess that has now changed because...
JA: I think it was less because necessarily of the elimination determining that and more because we of course uh maintained it, and actually we have managed very high vaccination rates generally without the use of certificates. But actually what has become clear to me is that they're not just a tool to drive up vaccines, they're a tool for confidence. People who have been vaccinated will want to know that they're around other vaccinated people, they'll want to know that they're in a safe environment. It is a way that we can give confidence to those who are going back into hospitality or events, and so that is something that I think we should offer to people who have been vaccinated - that confidence that we're doing everything we can to keep them safe, and that they can come back out and start enjoying those things safely. So it's a tool for business too.'
Reminded me of the excuse they used to clear the Occupy encampment from in front of St. Paul's: a concern for the sanitary conditions and the health & safety of the protestors. Yeah right, pull the other one mate...
Jacinda Ardern has poured cold water on a left-field bid by Julian Assange's lawyers to find him a new home in New Zealand.
Senior UK judges this month ruled the Australian publisher and activist can be extradited to the USA to face charges over his publication of confidential war documents. Mr Assange's legal team hoped New Zealand might play peacemaker in the WikiLeaks founder's extradition saga, by lobbying the US and UK.
New Zealand-based lawyer Craig Tuck called on Ms Ardern to make representations to US President Joe Biden or UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to end the "politically motivated prosecution".
"This is something our prime minister could address by picking up the phone to president Biden or prime minister Johnson and saying, 'Hey, enough's enough. Let's bury the hatchet and not in Julian's head'," Mr Tuck told Radio NZ. "Let's move on. This thing needs closure. There are issues of freedom, of kindness, of democracy (at play)."
Asked directly whether New Zealand had considered or might consider offering asylum to Mr Assange, Ms Ardern responded with a curt "No".