Jacinda Ardern has resurfaced again, this time on Brodie Kane’s Kiwi Yarns podcast, trying to soften her political legacy with talk of “being human” and “making mistakes.” No podcast appearance, no carefully worded reflection, and no PR spin can erase the damage she inflicted on New Zealand.
Ardern wants the public to remember her as an empathetic leader who carried the weight of multiple crises. For many New Zealanders, her time in power is remembered very differently - authoritarian pandemic controls, the forced vaccine mandates, and a culture of fear and division that fractured this country. She talks of consequences “for people” as though these were abstract inconveniences. In reality, people lost jobs, families were torn apart, livelihoods were destroyed, and some who took her government’s mandated vaccines ended up dead or seriously injured. People couldn’t even be there with their dying loved ones. These aren’t just “consequences” - they are tragedies caused by decisions she enforced.
Her refusal, alongside other senior ministers, to appear at the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Covid-19 says it all. For someone who claims to welcome scrutiny, it reeks of cowardice. If she truly wanted lessons learned, she would face the public and answer for the heavy-handed decisions her government made. Instead, she prefers the safety of friendly platforms like podcasts, where the questions are soft, most likely scripted and the narrative can be controlled.
Ardern is desperate to salvage her image because she knows what the public really thinks of her. Scroll through social media and you’ll see she is one of the most despised figures in New Zealand’s political history, perhaps even one of the most hated New Zealanders of all time. People haven’t forgotten the trauma of the Covid years, and they won’t be coaxed into forgiveness by soundbites about empathy.
Her legacy isn’t one of kindness. It’s one of division, control, and pain. No podcast will change that. The damage is already done. Ardern would do well to accept that, step away from the PR circus, stay in America and stop trying to rewrite history.
