Jacinda Ardern is once again in the spotlight but this time it's certainly not the limelight.
She and her Labour Government have done a great job of keeping us safe from Covid (although they couldn't have done that without the team of five million who did what they were told) but I question some of her decisions of late.
We will stick with Covid for now.
I would love to jump on a plane and go to the Cold Coast to meet my baby granddaughter.
However, with the risk of getting caught in a lockdown, being stuck there and then having to pay for two weeks of managed isolation to return, I have erred on the side of caution.
And while Queensland has had a short lockdown it certainly hasn't seen the number of positive cases that New South Wales has - I hope the rest of Australia keeps it at bay.
Ardern and her team made it quite clear that travellers across the ditch would be taking a risk of getting locked out of New Zealand and that if there was an outbreak they would have to go into MI for two weeks on their return — at their own cost.
But this week she has done a complete turnaround and not only flown people home but footed the bill for their two weeks in isolation.
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Advertise with NZME.It really is not fair when you think about the people who missed out on being with sick and dying loved ones, and those that missed out on going to tangihanga and funerals.
How must people feel who have been trying for months to book a spot in MI? I imagine they would be gutted and feel let down by a government that has said one thing and done something entirely different.
Another political backlash has come from the $2.75 million funding the Government has signed off for a Mongrel Mob led drug rehabilitation programme in Central Hawke's Bay.
This for me is a tricky one because while I can understand why people are upset about it and I agree that the money could be perhaps better spent elsewhere (such as housing), the fact that the money has come from proceeds of crime might just get it over the line.
Using the money taken from crime to prevent more crime does make sense. We have to start somewhere and if this works it could change a lot of lives for the better.
The big question here is can the Mongrel Mob deliver what they are promising. If the money is spent doing exactly as it says — rehabilitating meth addicts - then I'm all for it as long as the sober programme graduates aren't active gang members.
The benefits of that will be far reaching for wives and children of addicts as well as the general public who won't have to worry so much that their hard-earned possessions being stolen to fund drug addiction.
I would like to know how it's going to be monitored because you can bet your bottom dollar that this scheme is going to be under close scrutiny from the get-go and if it fails the Government will get the blame.
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Advertise with NZME.As for me and my beautiful granddaughter, well, I love social media. I get a photo every day, and we do video chats. Well her mother and I do with the baby sitting on her knee.
On Monday she was staring straight at the camera so I started talking directly to her (not the first time I have done this) but it is the first time that she tried to talk back, and I got a huge smile.
That will have to do me for the time being.
Linda Hall is Assistant Editor at Hawke's Bay Today.
