Madeleine Chapman reflects on the week that was.
Usually I try my best not to think about being in lockdown for four months in 2021. It feels like a fever dream now but for a period there a whole million Aucklanders were collectively losing their minds and it felt like no one else, including the government, noticed or cared.
And underneath the desperate chaos there was a genuine anger. It was anger at being condescended to, asked to “do more” without any assurance that help was on the way.
But that 2021 lockdown began four whole years ago (in August, even) and most of us are happy to leave it there. So I was surprised to find myself feeling nostalgic while reading Anna Rawhiti-Connell’s satirical diatribe as the government’s anger translator. A short, aggressive call to New Zealanders to toughen up and get to work. Evidently others felt something too as it’s the most-read article of the week but why did it hit such a nerve?
I think it’s because there’s a nihilistic humour in thinking you can simply talk people into doing anything, especially when it’s virtually impossible for that thing to be achieved. I guess that’s just politics 101 but Anna yelling at all of us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps while also pointing out that most people can’t afford boots really did echo the 2021 calls to just-stay-home-for-maybe-a-long-time-we’re-not-sure-just-keep-doing-it-thanks.
A tsunami emergency alert and a pandemic lockdown are very different circumstances but New Zealanders feeling deeply frustrated at being told to “just deal with it” – whether it’s Covid restrictions, an unaffordable cost of living or a hostile job market – is always the same. Being called dropkicks by the deputy prime minister is kind of funny when people are feeling secure in their jobs and homes. It’s a lot less funny when many feel like they’re the ones being constantly kicked.
At any rate, it has never served a government well to try to shift blame or responsibility for the country’s ills onto the people. Labour has still not recovered its support in Auckland after 2021. How many “just suck it up and sort it out” calls will be one too many for New Zealanders?
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