Regulation Minister David Seymour says some of Jacinda Ardern and the previous Labour Government’s actions were “authoritarian”.
It’s prompted Labour to call the comments “disappointing but not surprising” and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says while Seymour is entitled to his views, it’s not a word he would have used.
He made the comments today while announcing law changes aimed at making it easier for early learning services to be established and existing ones to operate.
At the announcement at a Thorndon early childhood learning centre in Wellington he read aloud a book called Oi Frog! for the children. On a nearby bookshelf sat Taking the Lead, a children’s book about the former Prime Minister.
Asked by 1News if the ACT leader would have read the latter to the children also, Seymour said he would, “absolutely”.
“But I have to say, Oi Frog was a lot more entertaining and ironically, Oi Frog seemed to be a warning to children about authoritarian people that tell you what to do all the time. Maybe that’s also why they have the Jacinda book, for a similar purpose, who knows?”
Asked if he believed Ardern was “authoritarian”, Seymour said “I think a wide range of people have that view”, and when asked if he was one of them, he said he believed “the way she used power through the Covid-era was excessive”.
“It didn’t properly balance New Zealanders’ rights and their welfare, and in some cases was found to be illegal – so some of those actions most certainly were.”
In 2020 the High Court found the first Covid-19 lockdown was “unlawful” for the first nine days, but the decisions to “go hard and go early” were “the right ones” – though the rule of law mattered.
The ruling found the power to impose the restrictions existed but was not used until April 3 – nine days into the lockdown.
In February 2022 there was also a High Court ruling that Covid-19 vaccine mandates for police and defence force staff were “unlawful”. The Government order required defence force personnel, police constables, recruits and authorised officers to have two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine or face being sacked.
In response to Seymour’s comments today, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said Seymour’s comments were “disappointing, although not surprising”.
“Given it is coming from a party which thinks we placed too high a value on human life during the Covid 19 response.”
According to the Oxford Reference dictionary, authoritarianism as a political concept is defined as “a style of government in which the rulers demand unquestioning obedience from the ruled”, although a broader definition of the adjective “authoritarian” means “favouring or enforcing strict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedom”.
Seymour’s comments today follow Prime Minister Christopher Luxon saying in March all politicians should be “careful with their language”, after New Zealand First leader Winston Peters – who is also the Deputy Prime Minister – invoked Nazi Germany in comments about co-governance. Luxon said they were not words he would have used.
He also said it applied to comments from Hipkins describing the Government as like a “dictatorship” for using parliamentary urgency, and Te Pāti Māori using the phrase “white supremacist” to describe some of the coalition Government’s policies, and “extreme language” was not helpful to political discourse.
Ardern and author David Hill – who wrote Taking the Lead – have been approached for comment.
‘I wouldn’t describe it that way’ – Luxon
Luxon – currently on a three-country visit through South-East Asia – was asked about Seymour’s comments and whether he agreed with them.
He said he didn’t agree Ardern’s actions in the pandemic were authoritarian, but Seymour was “entitled to his views”.
“I wouldn’t describe it that way. I would say we didn’t get everything right in the Covid response, and that’s why we actually want quite a wide-ranging – with a broader terms of reference – look into the Covid response.”
He said in an MMP environment and a coalition of three parties, the Government was “very aligned around the key things that matter”.
“It’s quite okay that people can have their own individual views, and it’s important that he can express himself as he wishes.”
He said that was part of a “mature MMP environment”.