More on Ardern's Flappy Lips

"It's All About Me"

We posted the other day a piece on how New Zealand's new Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern has mounted a soap box and oozed sanctimony on Australian migrant policy.  The Ozzies don't have enough compassion.  New Zealand apparently has plenty.  Ardern has "offered" to take 150 of these economic refugees from Manus Island--where they are currently being held--but her "offer" has been strangely put.  She has not only made the offer--she has also insisted that Australia take it up, publicly nagging the Australian PM, Michael Turnbull.

Turnbull is reported to be furious with Ardern's flappy lips.

The Aussies are well experienced in playing hardball when it comes to such squabbles.  They have their own version of utu, or revenge.  A well-timed leak was promiscuously sprayed across both countries this week.  Apparently, the "refugees" on Manus Island have been engaging in under-age sexual activity with members of the local population.
  The begged question is, Does New Zealand really know what it is dealing with in wanting such folk in New Zealand?

A group of Manus Island asylum seekers are luring underage girls as young as 10 into sex, an Australian Government intelligence report claims.  The Australian Government has confirmed the accuracy of the diplomatic cable, obtained by The Australian Financial Review and Stuff.  Intelligence advice to the Australian Government, sent in early October from Papua New Guinea, details allegations of shocking behaviour by some of the asylum seekers squatting in the now-closed Australian centre on Manus Island.

"In addition to broader allegations of drug taking and dealing (Marijuana), there were overarching community concerns regarding allegations that some residents were engaged in sexual activities with underage girls," the report states.  The report was concerned that male camp residents were travelling into the community to procure sex with underage girls.  [Stuff]

No problems, says Ardern.  Any "refugees" we take into New Zealand will be thoroughly vetted.  And how will you do that, we wonder?  Conduct DNA tests on the children born to local underage parents to screen out any "refugees" who have engaged in illegal sexual activity with eleven year old girls?  Naive Ardern appears to  be one of these people for whom utterance establishes or creates her own peculiar reality.  The more emphatically she says something, the more certain it will be--at least in her own mind.

Meanwhile irritation grows across the Tasman with Ardern's silly antics. 

Ardern has been increasingly insistent Australia should let New Zealand take some of the 600 asylum seekers remaining on Manus Island, following the closure of Australia's Regional Processing Centre.  It is understood the Turnbull Government is furious with what it views as Ardern's "moral posturing and naivety" on the matter.  The stand-off has caused rising tensions between the two countries, as Australia has come under international pressure over what has been described as a humanitarian crisis on Manus.

Australian government sources say they are extremely concerned about the messages Ardern is sending to people smugglers.  "The smugglers are watching every interaction between governments in the region on this issue and looking for a chance to restart their businesses," one senior Australian Government source said.  "They observe the statements of new leaders very closely and if they see a sign of policies shifting or changing, they take advantage of that."

Why is Ardern engaging in such sanctimonious behaviour?  Why the moral posturing?  Why the public hectoring of the Australian government, and Turnbull in particular?

Australian officials are understood to be perplexed about why Ardern's rhetoric has ramped up on the situation.  . . .  There are concerns the issue could damage relations between the two countries, Australian Government sources familiar with the matter said. It comes after Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said she could "find it very difficult to build trust" with an Ardern-led government prior to the election.

The Turnbull Government has said it is worried that if people seeking asylum  - particularly those whose legitimacy or probity it questions - end up in New Zealand, it could be the catalyst for boat arrivals to start again. The concern is Wellington would get the credit for taking the asylum seekers, while it was Canberra that would face security risks and ultimately be responsible for processing any that turned up in their waters.  It would also be the Australian Coast Guard and Navy that would be forced to intervene if boats ran into trouble in notoriously dangerous stretch of ocean. Drownings were not uncommon.

One senior government source said that the "people smugglers' pitch could be: Go to Australia, end up in New Zealand".  Australian Minister of Home Affairs Peter Dutton refused to comment, but he flagged the Turnbull Government's concerns in an interview in Australia on Monday.

"We believe that if you sent people to New Zealand at this point in time, that the people smugglers would again be able to say, 'Look; you've only got to wait a couple of years on Manus Island or on Nauru and you'll go to New Zealand – good welfare system there, good health system, good education and housing system – and then you'll be eligible to go to Australia'."

There is open entry between New Zealand and Australia.  If this were to be exploited by Ardern's current "project" in the years ahead, we risk having our open borders with Australia shut down.
All over the oozing sanctimony and self-righteous hectoring of our neophyte Prime Minister who has no idea of the damage her loose flapping lips can do.

In the end, it will have all been about her--as her language constantly demonstrates.