Is Jacinda Ardern running from Mike Hosking’s tough questions on COVID

NZ Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, is copping plenty of flack on Newstalk ZB for not appearing on Mike Hosking’s breakfast show as the COVID crisis continues to worsen.

With parts of the country under a strict Stage 4 lockdown, Ardern’s aim of eliminating COVID from her country are now being called “naive” and the poor roll out of vaccine is also getting plenty of criticism. 
 
Earlier this year Hosking and the PM had a falling out over her regular appearances on his program, culminating in Ardern calling time on the slot, and Hosking accusing her of running from away from the tough questions he was asking.

Now Hosking is more than a little annoyed that the Prime Minister would not appear on his program yesterday saying, “… the deal was, if you ever took the deal  seriously, which I didn’t, that she, although no longer appearing on this programme regularly, would still front for matters of major importance. 

“Level 4 probably falls into that category. 

“So, by not fronting on Level 4, what we find out is what most of us suspected in the first place. 

“The business earlier in the year about shuffling media commitments, about not being able to be everywhere all the time was of course a sham.”

And Hosking is not the only one calling out the NZ PM as according to The Australian today (subscription required) …what a difference three months makes. With an outbreak now in the hundreds, (Ardern’s) bid for “complete elimination” of Covid-19 looking naive amid strict lockdowns and glacial vaccination rates of just over 20 per cent that make even Australia’s rollout seem record-breaking, the Ardern media halo is slipping.

…from respected business and political columnists to NZ’s breakfast radio king Mike Hosking, the media’s knives have sharpened to even accuse Ardern of “misleading” the public with her tightly-controlled daily Covid-19 press conferences and poor vaccine rollout.

 

   

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