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Category: Polarisation

  • Jacinda Ardern’s legacy for NZ: Unique covid-19 strategy ‘saved many lives’

    RNZ News

    Jacinda Ardern will largely be remembered in Aotearoa New Zealand as the prime minister whose pandemic-era policies saved thousands of Kiwi lives, according to former prime minister Helen Clark.

    And she will also be considered an example of how to govern in the age of social media and endless crises, political experts say, while also achieving more than her critics might give her credit for.

    Ardern was set to deliver her valedictory speech later today, having stepped down as prime minister earlier this year after just over five years in the job.

    “I think that while I’m happy for Jacinda that she’s going to get a life and design what she wants to do and when she wants to do it, you can’t help feeling sad about her going,” Clark, herself a former Labour prime minister, told RNZ Morning Report ahead of Ardern’s speech.

    “Leaders like Jacinda don’t come along too often and we’ve lost one.”

    Ardern has played down suggestions online vitriol played a part in her decision to stand aside — but acknowledged on Tuesday she hoped her departure would “take a bit of heat out” of the conversation.

    Clark said she “fundamentally” believed the hatred got to Ardern, powered by “populism and division” generated by former US President Donald Trump and his supporters.

    ‘Conspiracies took hold’
    “Conspiracies took hold and suddenly you know, as the pandemic wore on here, I think the sort of relentless barrage from America — not, not just through Trump himself and the reporting of him, but through the social media networks — we have the anti-science people, the people who completely distrusted public authority, the QAnon conspiracies and hey, it played out on our Parliament’s front lawn and it still plays out and it’s very, very vitriolic and divisive.

    “So I think that that spillover impact was really quite, well, not just unpleasant — it was horrible.”

    Former PM Jacinda Ardern on the front page of the New Zealand Herald today
    Former PM Jacinda Ardern on the front page of the New Zealand Herald today . . . revealing her next move. Image: Screenshot APR

    Researchers have found Ardern was a lightning rod for online hate.

    The perpetrator of the 2019 mosque shootings used the internet to connect with and learn from other extremists, which led to Ardern setting up the Christchurch Call movement to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online.

    Her post-parliamentary career will include continuing that work, as New Zealand’s Special Envoy for the Christchurch Call, reporting to her replacement, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins.

    “The mosque murders was just the most horrible thing to have happen on anyone’s watch, and she rose to the occasion, and I think the international reputation was very much associated with initially the empathy that she showed at that time,” said Clark.

    But “one of New Zealand’s darkest days”, as Ardern put it at the time, was not the only near-unparalleled crisis she had to deal with in her time as prime minister.

    “The White Island tragedy was another that needed, you know, very empathetic and careful handling. But then comes covid, and there’s no doubt that thousands of people are alive today because of the steps taken, particularly in 2020.

    ‘Would we have survived?’
    “You know, I mean, I’m obviously in the older age group now which is more vulnerable. My father is 101 now and has survived the pandemic. But would we have survived it if it had been allowed to rip through our community, like it was allowed to rip through others?

    “I think that there’d be so many New Zealanders not alive today had those steps not been taken.”

    Data shows New Zealand has actually experienced negative excess mortality over the past few years — the elimination strategy so successful, fewer Kiwis have died than would have if there was no pandemic.

    Former Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said that was “unique, virtually unique around the world”.

    Despite that, it was New Zealand’s aggressive approach towards covid-19 in 2020 and 2021 that arguably drove much of the polarisation and online vitriol.

    “There’s no doubt that those measures did save lives. They also drove people into frenzied levels of opposition and fear and isolation,” said Clark. “They felt polarised, they felt locked out.”

    But she said Ardern bore “very little” responsibility for that.

    UNDP head Helen Clark poses in Paris on June 1, 2015
    Former PM Helen Clark . . . “There’s no doubt that those measures did save lives.” Image: RNZ News/AFP

    Political scientist Dr Bronwyn Hayward of the University of Canterbury said Ardern’s Christchurch Call to eliminate extremist content will have a long-lasting impact on not just New Zealand, but the world.

    “There’s been a lot made about the fact that she resigned under pressure from the trolls, which is completely missing the point that what she’s saying is that in this era where we’ve got particularly Russian, but also other countries’ bots that are attacking liberal leaders,” Dr Hayward told Morning Report, saying Ardern was the first global leader to “really understand” how what happens online can spill over into the real world.

    “She understands that democracies are now under attack, and the front line is your social media, where we’ve got a propaganda war coming internationally.

    “So she’s taken a very systemic approach to thinking about how to tackle that, so that in local communities it feels like you’re reeling from Islamophobia, to racism to transphobia, but actually, when we look internationally at what’s happening, naive and quite disaffected groups have been constantly fed this material and she’s taken a systemic approach to it.”

    Clark said one of the biggest differences in the world between Ardern’s time as prime minister and her own, was that she did not have to deal with social media.

    “I didn’t have a Twitter account, didn’t know what it was really. We had texts, that was about it. We used to have pagers, for heaven’s sake.”

    Ardern’s domestic legacy
    One of the first things Hipkins did when he took over as prime minister was the “policy bonfire” — but critics have long said the Ardern-led government has had trouble delivering on its promises.

    Interviewer Guyon Espiner reminded Clark that her government had brought in long-lasting changes like Working for Families, the NZ Super Fund and Kiwibank — asking her what Ardern could point to.

    Clark defended Ardern, saying the coalition arrangement with NZ First in Ardern’s first term slowed any reform agenda she might have had, and then there was covid-19.

    “Looking back, there needs to be more recognition that the pandemic blindsided governments, communities, publics around the world. It wasn’t easy.”

    Dr Hayward pointed to the ban on new oil and gas exploration and child poverty monitoring, “which before that was ruled as impossible or too difficult”.

    Dr Lara Greaves, a political scientist at the University of Auckland, said it was “incredibly hard to really evaluate” Ardern’s legacy outside of covid-19.

    “Ultimately … she is the covid-19 prime minister.”

    Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
    Former PM Jacinda Ardern at a covid-19 press conference. Image: RNZ News/Pool/NZ Herald/Mark Mitchell

    The future
    Clark said Ardern would be emotional during her valedictory speech.

    “You have very close relationships with colleagues, you have relationships with others of a different kind — with the opposition, with the media, with the public — and you’re walking away, you’re closing the door on it.

    “But you know that a new chapter will open, and that life post-politics can be very rewarding. I’ve certainly found it so. I have no doubt that Jacinda will get back into her stride with doing things that she feels are worthwhile for the the general public and worthwhile for her.”

    After losing the 2008 election, Clark rose the ranks at the United Nations. She said while that was an option for Ardern, there is plenty of time for the 42-year-old to do other things first.

    “I was, you know, 58 when I left being prime minister. And Jacinda’s leaving in her early 40s and she has a young child, so who knows? She may want Neve to grow up with a good old Kiwi upbringing.

    “And she may want her, you know, involvement internationally to be more, you know, forays out from New Zealand. That’s for her to decide. I mean, the world’s her oyster, if she chooses to follow that.”

    Dr Greaves also pointed to Ardern’s relative youth.

    “It seems like she’s going for a period of sort of recovery and reflection and figuring out what to do next. But of course, she’s got another 20 years in her career, at least — the world’s her oyster.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Roe v Wade shows why abortion is at the heart of America’s divisions

    ANALYSIS: By Tim Watkin, RNZ Series and podcasts executive producer

    It was sometime in the late 1990s that I first interviewed Alan Webster about New Zealand’s part in a global Values Study.

    It’s a fascinating snapshot of values in countries all over the world and I still remember seeing America grouped with many developing countries on a spectrum that had most English-speaking, democratic and developed countries grouped at the other end.

    It charted belief in angels and other supernatural beings.

    It was a lightbulb moment that has always helped me remember how deep religious beliefs run in the US and how socially different it is from most Western, Enlightenment-inspired countries.

    That memory came back to me when I awoke to the news that the US Supreme Court has overturned Roe v Wade in a 6-3 ruling, eliminating a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion — a right that has been in place since 1973.

    Abortion rights will now be decided state by state, with 26 states ready to enact laws that ban abortion, often with no exceptions. That means no abortion even in cases of rape or incest.

    It is undoubtedly a landmark moment in US politics and law, the latest step (not the end) in a decades-long campaign by conservative Americans to overturn America’s most controversial and divisive law.

    ‘Enflamed debate, deepened division’
    Writing the majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that “far from bringing about a national settlement of the abortion issue Roe and Casey have enflamed debate and deepened division”.

    He’s right, but the implication that this ruling somehow calms the waters is either deeply naive or deeply cynical. It does nothing more than flip the issue, like the handover of the ball in a football game, with what has been the team on defence now going on attack and vice versa.

    And because change in and of itself is fuel for any fire, this only ensures abortion remains THE divisive issue in American politics for, well, who knows how many years to come?

    Abortion has divided the country for decades; more so than foreign wars, economic policy and even gun control. It is the answer to so many questions non-Americans have about US politics.

    Many around the world have been perplexed by the growing divisions in US politics, the loss of civility, the rise of Trump. There are answers there about the influence of money, taxes, changing demographics and more.

    But at the heart of US political polarisation, often unspoken, masked or downplayed, has always been abortion.

    One of the most confounding of political mysteries in the past decade was why 84 percent of white evangelicals in 2016 voted for a thrice-married alleged sexual abuser as president and why “character” suddenly fell down their list of voting priorities.

    Today’s court decision is the answer.

    Evangelicals motivated by abortion
    Evangelicals are motivated by abortion more than any other issue and Trump’s commitment to swaying the court against it convinced them to vote for him even when it was against their economic interests and compromised other values.

    Many in conservative religious circles in the US compared Trump to King David, arguing that God has long used flawed and corrupt individuals to bring about his will.

    That faith has been vindicated today and Trump’s status as a moral hero is enshrined, despite his many other sins.

    Such is the strength of belief for or against abortion. Its power to divide is so strong because, seen through different lenses, it is so obviously right or wrong to those on either side of the debate.

    It is, to those on either side, obvious that they are right and they are horrified — not just perplexed, but horrified — that anyone might disagree with them.

    Those celebrating today’s overturn are celebrating the end of mass murder, because to them the decision to abort a foetus is the decision to take a life. (Others, to be fair, see it as a legal issue, one that is not in the Constitution and so should always have been viewed as a political debate not a constitutional right).

    Those weeping over today’s ruling do not see a foetus as a human life and rather see the courts telling a woman what she can do with her body, right to the point of that woman’s life and death.

    Matter of life over death
    When both sides see their view as a matter of life over death, you can understand the depth of feeling and pain on both sides and that, whatever Alito may be hoping, today’s decision will do nothing to heal America.

    What’s more, the impact of today’s ruling on US politics will be deep. Three things stand out:

    • Reproductive rights will dominate the 2022 mid-term elections and the US presidential elections in 2024. The court has said abortion is not a constitutional right, therefore it is up for grabs politically. Debate over national bans v national rights has already begun. That will mean less political oxygen for pressing political issues such as climate change, China and the Ukraine invasion.
    • This could be the start of a conservative pendulum swing in US politics, led by the US Supreme Court. Judge Clarence Thomas in his support of the majority opinion suggests the now reliably conservative court could dive further into America’s moral dilemmas, ruling on same-sex marriage and contraception rights.
    • Perhaps most troubling, it undermines citizens’ faith in their major public institutions. A majority of Americans favour at least some rights to abortion and some gun control. This week the Supreme Court has issued rulings at odds with public opinion on both. At a time when core institutions such as Congress and the media are losing the trust of citizens, adding the courts to that list is a major worry. If the foundations of liberal democracy are not serving the people, then those people start to look for alternatives, the baby can be lost with the bathwater and whole systems of law, order and government can start to look fragile.

    These are perilous days for the American project and that has implications for all of us. The’s court ruling is yet another polarising decision in these most polarising times and it’s hard to see where the healing can begin.

    Tim Watkin is a founder of political news website Pundit, has a long career in journalism and broadcasting, and now runs the podcast team at RNZ. This article was originally published on Pundit and is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • World Press Freedom Day 2021: Hostility towards journalists on rise

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    Journalists are fearful that increased harassment, abuse and violence directed towards them during the covid-19 pandemic could become the new normal, says the union for Australian media workers.

    Releasing its 2021 report into the state of press freedom in Australia, Unsafe at Work – Assaults on Journalists, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance says attacks on journalists increased both globally and and in Australia throughout 2020.

    MEAA has been cataloguing the decline of press freedom in Australia now for 20 years.

    MEAA says political polarisation caused by the pandemic was behind much of the rising animosity towards journalists, particularly through social media.

    But the union also warns that law enforcement agencies have become more heavy-handed in their treatment of journalists.

    According to MEAA’s 2021 press freedom survey – the fourth year it has been conducted – Australian journalists are fearful of an increasingly hostile working environment where physical assaults, online abuse and harassment by law enforcement agencies are becoming common.

    Although most working journalists who completed the survey said they had not been physically attacked or harassed themselves, 88.8 percent said they were fearful that threats, harassment and intimidation was on the rise.

    Assaults on journalists
    A quarter of all journalists surveyed said they had been assaulted at least once during their career, and one-in-five said they had been harassed by police while reporting over the past 12 months.

    A larger number – 35 percent – have been subjected to threats to their safety online and 70 percent said they did not believe their employer provided sufficient training or support in situations where they faced threats or assaults.

    MEAA chief executive Paul Murphy said an MEAA media release that the survey results were unsettling.

    “Journalists know that their work will always be under scrutiny and expect it to be criticised, but they are entitled to a safe workplace like all other workers,” he said.

    “But in recent years, and encouraged by politicians, journalists are being exposed to much more than an acceptable critique of their work.

    “They are threatened and sometimes assaulted at public events, while social media has now evolved into a vehicle for abuse, harassment and threats against journalists. Sometimes these attacks are one-offs but increasingly they are part of a torrent of abuse, which is a weapon to hurt and to harm.

    “The polarisation of politics is a key feature in much of this abuse.

    Urgent action needed
    “Urgent action is needed to ensure journalists can carry on their duties to our communities free from abuse, harassment, arrests and violence.”

    Overall, MEAA says that there has been little improvement in press freedom in Australia over the past 12 months, although the union welcomed the decision by the Australian Federal Police not to prosecute three journalists on national security grounds following raids in 2019.

    MEAA is hopeful that reform is slowly approaching towards a national uniform defamation regime, and there are positive signs that the Queensland government will finally adopt journalist shield laws, bringing it into line with all other jurisdictions.

    MEAA will release its 2021 report into the state of press freedom in Australia, Unsafe at Work – Assaults on Journalists, on UNESCO World Press Freedom Day today – Monday, May 3.

    The annual report catalogues MEAA’s press freedom concerns in Australia, and the region.

    Print Friendly, PDF & Email

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • World Press Freedom Day 2021: Hostility towards journalists on rise

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    Journalists are fearful that increased harassment, abuse and violence directed towards them during the covid-19 pandemic could become the new normal, says the union for Australian media workers.

    Releasing its 2021 report into the state of press freedom in Australia, Unsafe at Work – Assaults on Journalists, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance says attacks on journalists increased both globally and and in Australia throughout 2020.

    MEAA has been cataloguing the decline of press freedom in Australia now for 20 years.

    MEAA says political polarisation caused by the pandemic was behind much of the rising animosity towards journalists, particularly through social media.

    But the union also warns that law enforcement agencies have become more heavy-handed in their treatment of journalists.

    According to MEAA’s 2021 press freedom survey – the fourth year it has been conducted – Australian journalists are fearful of an increasingly hostile working environment where physical assaults, online abuse and harassment by law enforcement agencies are becoming common.

    Although most working journalists who completed the survey said they had not been physically attacked or harassed themselves, 88.8 percent said they were fearful that threats, harassment and intimidation was on the rise.

    Assaults on journalists
    A quarter of all journalists surveyed said they had been assaulted at least once during their career, and one-in-five said they had been harassed by police while reporting over the past 12 months.

    A larger number – 35 percent – have been subjected to threats to their safety online and 70 percent said they did not believe their employer provided sufficient training or support in situations where they faced threats or assaults.

    MEAA chief executive Paul Murphy said an MEAA media release that the survey results were unsettling.

    “Journalists know that their work will always be under scrutiny and expect it to be criticised, but they are entitled to a safe workplace like all other workers,” he said.

    “But in recent years, and encouraged by politicians, journalists are being exposed to much more than an acceptable critique of their work.

    “They are threatened and sometimes assaulted at public events, while social media has now evolved into a vehicle for abuse, harassment and threats against journalists. Sometimes these attacks are one-offs but increasingly they are part of a torrent of abuse, which is a weapon to hurt and to harm.

    “The polarisation of politics is a key feature in much of this abuse.

    Urgent action needed
    “Urgent action is needed to ensure journalists can carry on their duties to our communities free from abuse, harassment, arrests and violence.”

    Overall, MEAA says that there has been little improvement in press freedom in Australia over the past 12 months, although the union welcomed the decision by the Australian Federal Police not to prosecute three journalists on national security grounds following raids in 2019.

    MEAA is hopeful that reform is slowly approaching towards a national uniform defamation regime, and there are positive signs that the Queensland government will finally adopt journalist shield laws, bringing it into line with all other jurisdictions.

    MEAA will release its 2021 report into the state of press freedom in Australia, Unsafe at Work – Assaults on Journalists, on UNESCO World Press Freedom Day today – Monday, May 3.

    The annual report catalogues MEAA’s press freedom concerns in Australia, and the region.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • World Press Freedom Day 2021: Hostility towards journalists on rise

    Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

    Journalists are fearful that increased harassment, abuse and violence directed towards them during the covid-19 pandemic could become the new normal, says the union for Australian media workers.

    Releasing its 2021 report into the state of press freedom in Australia, Unsafe at Work – Assaults on Journalists, the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance says attacks on journalists increased both globally and and in Australia throughout 2020.

    MEAA has been cataloguing the decline of press freedom in Australia now for 20 years.

    MEAA says political polarisation caused by the pandemic was behind much of the rising animosity towards journalists, particularly through social media.

    But the union also warns that law enforcement agencies have become more heavy-handed in their treatment of journalists.

    According to MEAA’s 2021 press freedom survey – the fourth year it has been conducted – Australian journalists are fearful of an increasingly hostile working environment where physical assaults, online abuse and harassment by law enforcement agencies are becoming common.

    Although most working journalists who completed the survey said they had not been physically attacked or harassed themselves, 88.8 percent said they were fearful that threats, harassment and intimidation was on the rise.

    Assaults on journalists
    A quarter of all journalists surveyed said they had been assaulted at least once during their career, and one-in-five said they had been harassed by police while reporting over the past 12 months.

    A larger number – 35 percent – have been subjected to threats to their safety online and 70 percent said they did not believe their employer provided sufficient training or support in situations where they faced threats or assaults.

    MEAA chief executive Paul Murphy said an MEAA media release that the survey results were unsettling.

    “Journalists know that their work will always be under scrutiny and expect it to be criticised, but they are entitled to a safe workplace like all other workers,” he said.

    “But in recent years, and encouraged by politicians, journalists are being exposed to much more than an acceptable critique of their work.

    “They are threatened and sometimes assaulted at public events, while social media has now evolved into a vehicle for abuse, harassment and threats against journalists. Sometimes these attacks are one-offs but increasingly they are part of a torrent of abuse, which is a weapon to hurt and to harm.

    “The polarisation of politics is a key feature in much of this abuse.

    Urgent action needed
    “Urgent action is needed to ensure journalists can carry on their duties to our communities free from abuse, harassment, arrests and violence.”

    Overall, MEAA says that there has been little improvement in press freedom in Australia over the past 12 months, although the union welcomed the decision by the Australian Federal Police not to prosecute three journalists on national security grounds following raids in 2019.

    MEAA is hopeful that reform is slowly approaching towards a national uniform defamation regime, and there are positive signs that the Queensland government will finally adopt journalist shield laws, bringing it into line with all other jurisdictions.

    MEAA will release its 2021 report into the state of press freedom in Australia, Unsafe at Work – Assaults on Journalists, on UNESCO World Press Freedom Day today – Monday, May 3.

    The annual report catalogues MEAA’s press freedom concerns in Australia, and the region.

    Print Friendly, PDF & Email

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.