ON THE LINE for lockdown
Famous Chinese entrepreneur and the Queen among those chatting with Ardern,
In the lead-up to New Zealand’s four-week lockdown, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was in touch with a number of influential business figures including the world’s most famous Chinese entrepreneur.
This is according to recently released ministerial diaries, which all ministers publish online.
Ardern’s diary from February, March and April reveals who the Prime Minister was talking to during in the leadup to the lockdown, as well as during level 4.
Perhaps the most noteworthy appointment in Ardern’s diary was a phone call with Chinese billionaire philanthropist Jack Ma, on March 21. Ma is the co-founder of Chinese online retail giant Alibaba and is worth roughly $40 billion, according to Forbes.
Ardern spoke with Ma, via video conference, at 3pm — the pair spoke for half an hour.
Ardern’s diary does not say what was talked about, but a spokesman for the Prime Minister said Ma and Ardern discussed New Zealand’s response to Covid-19, in particular personal protective equipment (PPE).
The spokesman also revealed that Alibaba donated 300,000 masks to New Zealand in early April — when
Covid-19 was at its peak in the country.
The masks went to essential workers to get supply chains moving.
“All gifts of PPE were extremely helpful and we were grateful for it, especially in the early days when supply chains were ramping up,” the spokesman said.
Ma has been heavily involved in the global fight against Covid-19 and New Zealand is not the only country he has helped.
He has been instrumental in shipping medical supplies to more than 150 countries around the world — including face masks and ventilators.
In fact, Ma — though his foundation — sent a donation of 70,000 PPE masks to the Pacific Islands in April.
Ma was by no means the only business-person Ardern was speaking to both before, and during, the lockdown.
Her diary shows she met with prominent businessman Rob Fyfe in February and March.
Fyfe was shouldertapped by Ardern to be a liaison between her Government and the private sector during the Covid-19 crisis.
She also met with Fonterra’s top brass — including chief executive Miles Hurrell and its chief financial officer Marc Rivers.
And she was not the only one meeting with business leaders.
In early March, Finance Minister Grant Robertson met with businessman and philanthropist Sir Graeme Avery in his Beehive office.
Later that month, he met with Sir Stephen Tindall, Sam Morgan and Fyfe.
Just a day later, he had a meeting with Air New Zealand’s top leadership — including its chief executive Greg Foran and chairwoman Dame Therese Walsh.
He would later again speak to Walsh on her own.
After meeting with Hamilton Mayor Paula Southgate, Robertson had a sit-down with Refining New Zealand chief executive Mike Fuge.
He also met with Craig Hudson from Xero, representatives from Moody’s, Greg Harford of Retail NZ, Westpac and Goldman Sachs econo
mists and the hospitality industry in the lead-up to the March 17 wage subsidy announcement. A few days after that, he had a teleconference with Auckland Airport chief executive Adrian Littlewood.
He met with Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr and chief executive and Secretary to the Treasury Caralee McLiesh as a pair three times between March 5 and 19.
Robertson also met with them both individually a number of times as well.
Robertson’s diary also shows he was also in contact with Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg — speaking to him for an hour on March 13.
Robertson was meant to meet Frydenberg in Australia, but due to Covid-19 risks the pair had to video chat instead.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Winston Peters was looking after New Zealand’s international response.
As far back as February 1, Peters was on the phone to China’s Foreign Minister. At the time, China was one of only a handful of countries to have a Covid-19 outbreak.
His diary shows his communications with diplomats and officials began to ramp up in late February and in March.
It was around this time New Zealand began shutting its borders and bringing Kiwis home.
On March 23, he spoke to the Australia Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne — the next day, he was on the phone to Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Franc¸ois-Philippe Champagne.
And while Peters was working the diplomats, Ardern was working the world leaders.
On April 8, she spoke to the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands, Henry Puna, then to the Premier of Niue, Toke Talagi.
At 6pm that same day, Ardern had a 15-minute phone call with Sweden’s Prime Minister, Stefan Lo¨fven.
The next day, she phoned Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and five days after that she was on the phone with Denmark’s Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen.
Later in the month, Ardern spoke to the President of the European Union, David Sassoli, for 10 minutes.
On April 17, she spoke to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison for half an hour.
On April 28, Ardern went to Question Time in the House; for most of lockdown, Parliament didn’t sit. For the remainder of the month, Ardern’s time was dominated by meetings and media.
That is, apart from a brief 15 minute period at 9pm on a Tuesday night of April 28, when Ardern had a phone call with the Queen.