From Prime Minister to Tyrant

By Olivia Pierson
First published on Insight @theBFD 21/05/2020

Jacinda Ardern has crossed the line from New Zealand’s Prime Minister to its tyrant. 

We have watched her toe this line for several years as she promised to crack down on free speech laws – and she did indeed begin to politicise the police force by having them regularly visit the homes of many conservative bloggers and social media users to ask questions about their posts.
 
Also came her swift gun control legislation after the Christchurch shooting, and the fiasco of the buy-back, which saw decent, law abiding gun owners handing in their guns while gangs and criminals got to keep theirs.
 
But now “JacArd” has leapt all the way over the other side of the demarcation between leadership and tyranny with her nationwide lockdown, and subsequent destruction of thousands of NZ private businesses.
 
Yet, even worse than all of this – much worse in fact, is her government’s hastily processed, reckless Covid 19 Public Health Response Bill, which passed into law on May 13th 2020.
 
This bill handed the police ludicrously panoptic powers for the first time ever seen in this country. Police can now enter a private home without a warrant. This is no longer a First World standard of justice – it’s Banana republic territory.

As if all this is not horrific enough, there remains a much more sinister aspect to this repugnant bill which should be of utmost concern to NZ citizens: it has handed unprecedented powers to the Ministry of Health to create a class of “authorised” people, i.e., citizens whom The Ministry appoint, or employ, to make sure that businesses and public places enforce social distancing rules and all the rest of the high panic measures around COVID-19. If businesses are seen to not comply fully, they can be shut down on the spot.

This “authorised person or class of persons” is the very definition of a Stasi – a state security service (or safety service) – whose main task in the communist dictatorship of the German Democratic Republic was to spy on the population and create a network of citizen informants.  

Here’s the wording in the bill which passed last week:

Subpart 3 – Enforcement, offences and penalties
Authorised persons

18 Authorised persons

1. (1) The Director-General may authorise a suitably qualified and trained person who is not an employee of the Ministry of Health, or a class of suitably qualified and trained persons who are not employees of the Ministry of Health, to carry out any functions and powers of an enforcement officer under this Act.
2. (2) An authorisation under subsection (1) must – 

1. (a) be in writing; and
2. (b) specify – 

(i) the authorised person our the class of persons; and
(ii) the functions and powers that may be carried out by the authorised person or class of persons; and
(iii) the term of the authorisation.
(3) The Director-General may renew any authorisation given under subsection (1).
(4) The Director-General may revoke an authorisation given under this section – 
(a) in the case of an individual, for incapacity, neglect of duty, or misconduct; or
(b) in the case of an individual, on the written request of the authorised person; or
(c) if the Director-General considers the the authorisation is no longer necessary or desirable.
(5) If a person ceases to be an authorised person, they must surrender to the Director-General all articles and documents received by the person in relation to the authorisation.
 
During the Covid so-called emergency, we already saw a hotline quickly created for folks to anonymously snitch on their neighbours and fellow countrymen and women. 

Now JacArd’s government has legislated for a whole new bureaucracy of people to be employed to spy on other citizens in an official capacity.
 
The cultural effect on our country of unleashing these pernicious laws are unimaginable, but we can be in no doubt that this dystopian territory is no longer democratic, nor healthy, nor patriotic. 

Professor Paul Hunt, NZ’s current Human Rights Commissioner, expressed his “deep concern” about the rushed lack of scrutiny with the passing of the bill.  He said:

“This is a great failure of our democratic process. The new legislation, if passed in its current state, will result in sweeping police powers unseen in this country for many years.

In times of national emergency sweeping powers are granted. There is a risk of overreach. Mistakes are made and later regretted.”
 
When radical Lefties, such as Professor Hunt, voice their “deep concern” at a lack of scrutiny in a new bill permitting undue police powers, we’re really in dire straits – since Professor Hunt was brought to New Zealand to help this government enact anti hate speech laws. 

The bill’s sunset clause of two years was amended to being “reviewed” every three months, and funerals and tangis have been allowed up to 50 people instead of just 10, but apart from those small amendments, the bill did pass “in its current state.”

JacArd is not even putting up the pretence of appearing to lead a free and democratic country anymore, she has instead become intoxicated on dictatorial powers and the honking hurrahs of a large gaggle of global press geese.
 
This is now an untenable situation for the free people of New Zealand who truly value liberty.
 
Governments are instituted among men in order to effect the safety and security of their natural rights, as America’s Declaration of Independence instructed the world and set the example for all free nations. 

 – When a government becomes abusive of these ends, as citizens it is our right as well as our duty to remove such a government from office.

 – When police can enter at will private homes and businesses with no warrant in order to enforce new laws against the owners, that is an egregious abuse of freedom.

 – When government empowers citizens to be transformed into a network of spies to police new laws in the public and private spheres, that is an egregious abuse of freedom.
 
 – Locking down an entire population of citizens, as communist China set the example for everyone to do, is an egregious abuse of freedom.
 
 – Recklessly vandalising a country’s economy in the name of enforced “safety” is an egregious abuse of freedom. 

The New Zealand public had no say in the bill’s passing – the fact that it was hurtled through parliament at break-neck speed with enough votes from the Coalition shows New Zealand that chillingly, this government cares not a whit for upholding the precious cornerstone principles of our liberty and natural rights.
​ 
This government has chosen to blackmail NZ citizens in the most emotive terms imaginable – to quote Ardern when she pitched the idea of lockdown over the TV airways: “If we don’t do this now, tens of thousands of people WILL die!” 

That was pure, hyperbolic nonsense; fake news built on false information and designed to instil panic and fear in a population – and it worked. 

Jacinda Ardern’s government is not worthy to lead a free people.
 
They well know this, which is why they are taking our freedoms away.
​

If you enjoyed this article, please buy my book "Western Values Defended: A Primer"