Andrew Dickens: Should Jacinda Ardern come home and front the Covid inquiry?

Question: should Jacinda Ardern come home and appear before the Royal Commission into our Covid response? I think she should.  

I could understand though if she doesn't. Because just as she became the symbol of our successful response to the pandemic, which we rewarded with a supermajority in Labour's second term, she also then became the symbol of everything that we did wrong.  

And there's a significant number of people who have been weaponised against the former Prime Minister because of the things they resent, and they want a holding to account. They want a Nuremberg trial, as you heard from my texts, you know, they want fines, they want jail.  

But they won't get that, even if she did come back. This is an inquiry about Covid to understand everything they got wrong as well as everything they got right. Now, I'm sure Jacinda Ardern, even if her conscience is completely clear, she would be worried about the consequences of coming home and being at the front of this investigation for her family, for her personal safety, for her own mental health.  

And the feeling is that she won't – you can read between the lines in the recent Women's Weekly interview that home is not on the radar.  

But remember, she will not escape the inquiry. No one will. There are enough people being called to give us the full and frank dissection of everything that happened at the beginning of this decade, and that is important because there will be another pandemic one day.  

So let's get into it with or without former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Question, should Jacindaa do and come home in the year
before the World Commission into our COVID response. I think
she should. I could understand though if she doesn't, because
just as she became the symbol of our successful response
to the pandemic, which we rewarded with a supermajority in
Labour's second term, she also then became the symbol of
everything that we did wrong. And there's a significant number

(00:20):
of people who have been weaponized against the former Prime
minister because of the things they resent, and they want
a hold into account. They want a Nuremberg trial, as
you heard from my text. They want fines, they want jail,
but they won't get that even if she did come back.
This is an inquiry about COVID to understand everything they
got wrong as well as everything they got right. Now
I'm sure you cinderad do. And even if her conscience

(00:41):
is completely clear, she would be worried about the consequences
of coming home and being at the front of this investigation,
for her family, for her personal safety, for her own
mental health, and the feeling is that she won't. You
can read between the lines and the recent Women's Weekly
interview that home is not on the raindar but remember
she will not escape the No one will. There's enough

(01:02):
people being called to give us the full and frank
dissection of everything that happened at the beginning of this decade,
and that is important because there will be another pandemic
one day. So anyway, let's get into it, with or
without former Prime Minister just under A. Durn. For more
from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News

(01:25):
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podcast on iHeartRadio.