JACINDA ARDERN'S MEANINGLESS AND INSULTING GESTURE

Jacinda Ardern's announcement that she's taking a 20 percent six month wage cut in 'solidarity' with struggling New Zealanders is little more than a self-serving sham. While Ardern plays to the gallery she leads a government that continues to resist putting up welfare benefits to a level that would lift people out of the dire economic circumstances they find themselves in.

PRIME MINISTER Jacinda Ardern's decision to take a 20 percent pay cut for six months sees her returning to the gesture politics she has become notorious for. It might allow her hardcore supporters to oooh and aaah about how 'empathetic' she is, but Ardern's playing to the gallery is a gross insult to the tens of thousands  of folk who are struggling, with increasing numbers turning to food banks just to put food on the table. Meanwhile her government is throwing billions of dollars at a clamouring business sector.

Jacinda Ardern's so-called act of 'solidarity' with the working class will see her out of pocket some $50,000. This  is inconsequential for someone on an annual salary of $471,000.  Last year she was reported to be the seventh highest political leader in the world. Her act of 'solidarity'  is meaningless to the tens of thousands of New Zealanders who have been forced to take pay cuts because they have lost their jobs or have had their hours severely cut.

Ardern says that the 20 percent cut that she and her fellow ministers and top public servants are taking is purely symbolic. This is pure cant by Ardern because she then went on to say that she was striking a blow against inequality, commenting that  her temporary wage cut was 'a small contribution' toward easing pay inequalities in society.

'If ever there was a time to close the gap between different positions, it's now,' she preached. 'This is where we can take action which is why we have. We feel acutely the struggle that many New Zealanders are facing and so too, do the people that I work with on a daily basis.'

Its impossible to take Ardern seriously since, under her government, inequality has increased sharply.

In December Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft revealed that some 254,000 children were living under the poverty line of 50 percent of the median income. Becroft described the Ardern government’s response to the crisis as 'weak, supine, passive… We can’t fiddle while Rome burns.'

In 2018 the rich grew richer by a record $90 billion while the poorest 50 per cent of New Zealand's population actually  saw their total wealth actually decrease by $1.3 billion.

Jacinda Ardern might claim she 'feels' the struggle that many New Zealanders are facing, but that compassion hasn't extended to increasing benefits to a level that would lift people out of the dire economic circumstances they find themselves in. Ardern's gesture politics won't provide shelter for people or feed the kids. While her government panders to corporate interests, Ardern's so-called 'empathy' is nothing more than an ideological front for a government in the process of screwing ordinary people all over again.