Oops. Looks like you didn’t read my comment properly, nor the one I was responding to. I was specifically responding to malasang’s comment about Chinese influence. Here’s what he posted, in full:
With my response, in full:
I didn’t mention anything about Ardern signing that agreement, nor did he. I clearly wrote: "In 2008, New Zealand…, not “In 2008, Ardern…”
This is a Oz/ NZ thread, not an Ardern thread.
The photo of Xi with Ardern in my comment is dated there by me as:
Not 2008. And was simply used to emphasise the ties between the two countries and the fact that those ties continue up to now (hence, recent photo).
What can I say? You’re trying to see things that aren’t there
As a bit of history for you (since it appears you are interested), it was Helen Clark, back in 2004 (eventually signed in 2008) who started those initial negotiations. Ardern simply upgraded/ updated their free trade pact in Jan., 2021.
if you put her through a woodchipper, she’d probably just do this:
It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.
"…after a heavily publicised admission from Pfizer’s president of international developed markets revealing the company’s vaccine was not tested to stop transmission, Ms Ardern was adamant that her government’s mandates had “prevented a devastating outbreak” and offered no apology to those who lost their jobs as a result of its measures.
"New Zealand had some of the harshest border and quarantine policies in the world, denying re-entry to thousands of its own citizens for months on end.
And up until April 2022, no traveller, not even citizens, could enter the country without providing proof of vaccination.
Where was the empathy for people locked out of their own country?"
“Elsewhere, the Prime Minister used her global platform to promote the importance of regulating online content, referring to freedom of speech online as a potential “weapon of war” in a September 2022 address to the UN General Assembly.”
Offguardian comes up with some really solid reporting. It’s a pity the MSM can’t do the same thing.
Interesting to also read there that the Health Minister as-was lied to the public about vaccines for teenagers and is now … Prime Minister. I’m sure that’s just another one of those funny coincidences, like the guy who stage-managed the lockdowns in the UK becoming, um, Prime Minister.
Thank goodness there aren’t any international conspiracies, eh?