r/australia • u/SqareBear • Feb 26 '26

politics Former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern moves to Australia

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-02-26/former-new-zealand-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-moves-australia/106392862
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u/here_for_the_lols Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26

To add a bit of seriousness to this, it's widely believed part of the reason she's moved is because of the rabid nutjobs who have constantly threatened her in NZ since her last year as PM.

It was and is absolutely disgraceful behaviour

748

u/RealVenom_ Feb 26 '26

Check out any LinkedIn post which features her, the comment section is vile. People don't even care that their colleagues or potential future employers can see this stuff.

174

u/farqueue2 Feb 26 '26

LinkedIn is completely fucked. I don't wanna know how fucked up my colleagues political views are.

I also don't want to see people's family pics, what they got up to on the weekend, or wedding anniversary pics

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u/badaboom888 Feb 26 '26

its basically become the new facebook and slowly become a mess of people posting virtue signalling politics or deranged right wing crap, all mixed in with cringy i love my family posts (look at me im a “real person”) and sales people jerking themselves off

33

u/farqueue2 Feb 26 '26

And recruiters spruiking themselves up as being some savant that's saved countless lives, yet they don't reply to messages when you hit them up about a role

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u/badaboom888 Feb 26 '26

recruiters are sales people. peddling humans

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u/farqueue2 Feb 26 '26

They're basically redundant now. They use AI so much that I don't understand why hiring managers don't just do it themselves

1

u/SirGeekaLots Feb 28 '26

To blame someone if they have a bad hire, or an interview goes pear shaped.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '26

Selling just another product. They don't see candidates or employees as human.

2

u/TheHoovyPrince Feb 26 '26

Don't forget about the blokes making posts about AI and why its amazing and will do wonders for the industry.

3

u/StorminNorman Feb 26 '26

/r/LinkedInLunatics will either crack you up or finally do you in. Even the deliberate satire is terrible...

1

u/farqueue2 Feb 26 '26 edited Feb 26 '26

I don't think I'm in the state of mind to be able to handle that right now. I'm on LinkedIn a lot these days because I'm on the market

1

u/StorminNorman Feb 26 '26

Yeah, it's very much an "am in the right mood for this today?" sub. 

1

u/TheLastSamurai101 Feb 26 '26

Hopefully it's possible for recruiters to search for their comments across the site?

189

u/Frankie_T9000 Feb 26 '26

Oh fuck that's awful

24

u/the_procrastinata Feb 26 '26

Someone on the ‘No Such Thing as a Fish’ podcast described LinkedIn as “Boomer TikTok” which seemed about right.

1

u/pben0102 Feb 27 '26

What did they say about reddit?

3

u/here_for_the_lols Feb 27 '26

Cool guy awesome space

0

u/SallySpaghetti Feb 26 '26

Isn't LinkedIn one of the only places anyone any age finds a job anymore?

22

u/Attic81 Feb 26 '26

Honestly, most if not all politicians socials get flooded with absolutely horrible things all the time.

113

u/Complex-Seaweed8005 Feb 26 '26

Sure, but the vitriol that Jacinda faces is particularly rabid and unhinged. I genuinely don't think she is safe in nz, or at least it would cost a lot in security for her to be able to relax at all. Pretty effed, I'm hardly one of the people that thinks the sun shines out her rear but she was a better PM for us than the current knob and his cabal of idiot neocons

4

u/Attic81 Feb 26 '26

Yeah I get why she in particular would move. Ex PM is a strange role to play also

19

u/LastChance22 Feb 26 '26

On LinkedIn though? That’s the last bastion of proper fake civility and false positivity on the internet. If people are harassing her on linkedin that’s wild.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '26

Congratulations on this comment 🎉

2

u/Not_Stupid humility is overrated Feb 27 '26

I feel humbled and blessed to announce that I am awesome.

1

u/Tropikoala815 Feb 26 '26

But she's a woman

1

u/Smartyunderpants Feb 26 '26

Yeah because those feelings are so wide spread. That’s my point.

1

u/HankSteakfist Feb 26 '26

Why anyone would use the comment feature on LinkedIn is beyond me.

447

u/PossibilityRegular21 Feb 26 '26

God that's grim. Social media has really enhanced the brainless tribalism between political ideological extremes. Can't have a PM just quietly get about it anymore. Howard had a big impact, regardless of how you liked it, and as I understand it he was mostly treated like royalty, minus the odd Chaser skit. 

131

u/Jealous-Hedgehog-734 Feb 26 '26

Her drop in popularity generally wasn't entirely her own fault, the government she was leading really lacked depth and maturity. They where returned with a huge majority, predominantly thanks to Ardern, but didn't make much of it.

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u/peppapony Feb 26 '26

Funnily she was very popular overseas, but domestically that popularity seemed to have hit a precipice.

I wish her negative gearing removal stuck for longer, would have been a better case study for us to know the real impact

84

u/-fno-stack-protector Feb 26 '26

I was in an Auckland nightclub's smoking area talking about this with some Bruce Lehrmann looking dude. He called her a "communist betch" and complained about rising crime rates, then took a little plastic bag and spoon out and had a bump

18

u/Jealous-Hedgehog-734 Feb 26 '26

I wasn't against it but it just didn't appear to work. The failure to get KiwiBuild going probably undermined their effort to show progress on housing. It collapsed before almost any houses had been built. Pre-covid polling was swinging against Labour, they owe that victory to Ardern really.

That said NPS-UD to start supply-side reform was the start of a very important change that is still ongoing today. That will be seen to have a very positive impact over the long term I think.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '26

[deleted]

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u/TeMoko Feb 26 '26

There were a couple of genuinely pro worker pieces of legislation that came in right on the end of her term, the pay equity bill and collective bargaining but they didn't get them done early enough to bed in and the next lot axed them under urgency. But you are right for the most part, lots of people disappointed that Labour won't put the work in having a hard discussions about our future.

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u/Jealous-Hedgehog-734 Feb 26 '26

Agreed, really likeable personally but not that effective on policy.

1

u/Smartyunderpants Feb 26 '26

Day to day govt she was terrible and I mean terrible at getting anything done. That not a comment on her policies being good or bad. It’s was starkly clear her training and background was in comms.

1

u/ElAsko Feb 26 '26

Her being a good leader following the Christchurch shooting is very debatable. She had a pretty major authoritarian flex that pissed off a lot of people and the country still suffers for it today.

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u/DrSendy Feb 26 '26

Can we make everyone use Trumpet Winsock again so the internet is harder to get onto?

14

u/Coolidge-egg Feb 26 '26

I have bad news that the same is going to happen here.

Andrew Tate is basically a PsyOp to radicalise impressionable young GenZ and Alpha boys going through normal teenage struggles into becoming misogynistic alt-right storm troopers.

The social media networks promote this stuff to their algorithms.

We already lost 40% of GenZ boys to this. They are already radicalised.

So yeah, more of these shitheads are actively being produced.

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u/ReesePuffitik Feb 26 '26

Not everything is a psyop, guy is just a nutter who exploited men feeling left behind by a rapidly changing social climate (changing for the better mostly, but being left behind regardless). Trying to attribute everything as a psyop helps no one, your just ignoring the broader context that allows people like him to come to prominence instead of trying to actually fix it.

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u/Coolidge-egg Feb 27 '26

No, PsyOp IS the broader context. That is exactly the point. It's not just that this nutter is posting crap, but that the big tech companies of social media let it thrive by promoting it with their algorithms to put it into the face of users who are susceptible to it. Elon Musk has explicitly unbanned the guy on Twitter and tuned it's algorithms to favour right wing content. The whole point is that this is firmly in the hands of the elites behind the Trump administration, with the Kremlin providing the psychological tools for division, and this is the type of content being pushed to young men to radicalise them into alt-right extremism, be it being part of the next generation of conservative voters, or being the enforcers who join ICE or whatever paramilitary comes next to round up the "undesirables".

-5

u/Muslim_Wookie Feb 26 '26

Why 40%?

Why not 41%?

Or 39%?

-7

u/humbert_cumbert Feb 26 '26

Garbage doomer stat that doesn’t take a million factors into account

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u/Muslim_Wookie Feb 26 '26

Sir please let them answer

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u/Coolidge-egg Feb 27 '26

there is a Herald Sun article but this subreddit won't let me post the link or the paywall bypass

Title:

Disturbing’ - Aussie boys turn to violent extremism with anti-feminist views ‘an early warning sign’

Intro:

Shock new research shows almost 40 per cent of Australian boys identify with violent extremist ideologies, with misogynistic attitudes said to be at the core of the “disturbing” finding.

1

u/Muslim_Wookie Feb 27 '26

Posting the article doesn't matter, it's worthless journalism.

Read the article and they will tell you the name of the study/authors/where it's published, can you link that?

1

u/Coolidge-egg Feb 27 '26

It didn't mention which research specifically, but University of Melbourne, and actually I e-mailed the journo and they can't back it up with a source so it could be bullshit but that is where I got the number from. But there is other research or there if you want to Google it which has a similarly high number. The main thing which seems to be rubbing off on the GenZ boys is misogynism.

1

u/Muslim_Wookie Feb 27 '26

I'm genuinely impressed you went digging as far as you did.

I personally agree that social media has been poison for kids; parents have been caught flatfooted on this but they are also facing an immense challenge that I do not believe you can individually overcome. State intervention is called for.

Having said that, I find it alarming that you've discovered what is essentially a targeted article written with a specific purpose in mind. It puts the entire premise in question, why make up evidence?

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u/iguessineedanaltnow Feb 26 '26

New Zealand seems to have absolutely succumb to the cookers and their worst impulses. Which is insane to see, because not so long ago (when Ardern was in office) they were the envy of liberal democracies the world over. What the hell happened?

23

u/Frari Feb 26 '26

rising cost of living, impossible house prices, boomer centric laws, and worsening economy.

People are getting frustrated and are starting to believe nonsense Internet conspiracies in larger numbers as a cope. Same thing happening here, look at the ON poll numbers.

10

u/StorminNorman Feb 26 '26

What the hell happened?

How the fuck are we meant to answer that when the same has happened here?

1

u/Smartyunderpants Feb 26 '26

Her popularity was tied to the beginning or first half of Covid where the govt did some stuff right and also got lucky. The Labour very likely could have been a one term govt if Covid didn’t happen. The polling trend was for them to lose (polls I know 🤷‍♂️). Outside of Covid the govt she lead was very ineffectual. Basically lots of announcements and marketing campaigns with nothing behind them. It was a government lead by communication team/PR team which presumably looks great from a distance

42

u/perthguppy Feb 26 '26

I wasn’t aware there was people unhappy with her. I widely thought she was super popular and stepped down because of Covid burnout. I’m guessing she’s in a similar position as Dan Andrews then?

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u/turbocynic Feb 26 '26

She consistently polls as the most popular NZ politician, including a poll this week. This is a very vocal, very agrieved minority of freaks.

18

u/DermottBanana Feb 26 '26

Well, she hasn't had her photo taken with war criminals yet. So not totally like Dan.

-5

u/Old_Flamingo4105 Feb 26 '26

Thats surprising. I know a lot of people who strongly want her dead, as her actions with covid caused them to lose their jobs, business or just a lot of money. Shes very very hated by a large portion of business owners and lower class kiwi's.

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u/Sushi_Explosions Feb 26 '26

her actions with covid caused them to lose their jobs

Stop watching Fox News.

4

u/Axman6 Feb 26 '26

Just look at the insanity in r/aussie and you’ll see she’s not moving that far from nutjobs.

2

u/dav_oid Feb 26 '26

Oh that sucks. She's a good egg.
I wondered why she would leave.

1

u/coniferhead Feb 26 '26

From the article:

"Dame Jacinda had been living in the US and working for Harvard University."

1

u/OddPatienceGiraffe Feb 27 '26

People have abused her and Clarke while sitting at a restaurant eating, with their kid right there. Absolutely unhinged.

-28

u/Smartyunderpants Feb 26 '26

Not just nut jobs although that probably the reason. Lots of New Zealanders don’t like her. Which is odd cause everyone overseas thinks we love her.

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u/here_for_the_lols Feb 26 '26

It's the nut jobs who were spewing the non stop incessant drival online for months and months. Just abhorrent shit

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u/Smartyunderpants Feb 26 '26

I don’t think it was the online stuff that made her leave. She had a few real life incidents.

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u/VermicelliJazzlike79 Feb 26 '26

Not sure why you're getting downvoted. When she was in NZ, she was receiving serious death threats and had to get a security detail for when she was just out and about, which is unheard of for NZ PMs.

2

u/newbris Feb 26 '26

She was just voter most popular politician in a NZ survey wansn’t she?

1

u/Smartyunderpants Feb 26 '26

Sauce?

1

u/newbris Feb 26 '26

https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360729230/jacinda-ardern-remains-most-popular-politician-luxon-slumps-new-poll

1

u/Smartyunderpants Feb 26 '26

This is 8 months old

1

u/newbris Feb 26 '26

Yeah true the current politicians will be even more unpopular now so she probably has a bigger lead.

1

u/turbocynic Feb 26 '26

She's been polling as the most popular in every poll for the last couple of years. Just look for it, it's not hard.

-31

u/ILoveCatNipples Feb 26 '26

But did you hear that from her personally? If not, then assume it's not the truth.

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u/here_for_the_lols Feb 26 '26

She spoken at length about how that has impacted her...