Outspoken commentator Dan Wootton has again taken aim at Jacinda Ardern and her "unimaginable cruelty" after a pregnant Kiwi journalist said she had to ask the Taliban for refuge after being denied a MIQ spot.
On Saturday, Al Jazeera's Afghanistan reporter Charlotte Bellis wrote an open letter in the NZ Herald saying that after failing to get a MIQ spot through the lottery she has nowhere else to legally go except Afghanistan - an unsafe place to give birth due to the country's healthcare crisis.
With her birth date nearing, she applied for an emergency MIQ spot but received a rejection letter on January 24. Among the reasons given were that she and her partner's travel dates were more than 14 days away and she did not provide evidence she had scheduled medical treatment in New Zealand.
Bellis said getting pregnant in Afghanistan can be a "death sentence" and the decision to decline her emergency application left her "in shock".
"When the Taliban offers you - a pregnant, unmarried woman - safe haven, you know your situation is messed up," she wrote.
"How did they want me to prove that giving birth was a scheduled, time-critical medical treatment? Did they want me to be induced so there was a firm date? And how to prove that Afghanistan did not offer the same maternity care as in New Zealand?"
GB News presenter Wootton, who was born in New Zealand, says it shows there is "nothing kind about Dear Leader Ardern".
"More unimaginable cruelty from Jacinda Ardern in her hermit kingdom," he tweeted.
"The full story is astonishing and very much worth your time.
"This is what New Zealand passport holders are having to endure, even though it is a legal right for us to return. Ardern's Government is clearly breaking the law."
In a statement, COVID Response Minister Chris Hipkins said Bellis' case "appeared at first sight to warrant further explanation".
"My office passed this information onto officials to check whether the proper process was followed," he told the NZ Herald.
"I'm unable to provide any further comment on MIQ at this stage as a court case against MIQ is being prepared and expected to be heard soon."
Head of MIQ Chris Bunny said there are "a lot of people in really difficult situations around the world".
"All applications for emergency allocations of an MIQ voucher are assessed case-by-case, there is no preferential treatment - it is a fair and consistent process.
"MBIE regularly evaluates its Emergency Allocations criteria and will continue to do so."
It's the second time this week Wootton has taken aim at Ardern. Earlier Wootton took aim at Ardern's recent decision to put the country back into red - calling it "cruel" and saying she's "gripped with the terror that her decision to pursue a Zero Covid policy long-term is unravelling".
"While the rest of the world is finally waking up to the need to live with Covid long-term, New Zealand remains trapped in March 2020, with terror and paranoia enveloping a country that was once famous for producing hard men like Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary, fearless rugby giant Jonah Lomu and bungee jump inventor AJ Hackett," Wootton wrote in a column for the Daily Mail.
"Rather than preparing for the inevitable over the past two years, socialist Ardern is hamstrung by a creaking health system with less than 200 intensive care beds to service five million citizens."
This was met with a mixture of support and criticism - even drawing a tweet from Parliament's Speaker Trevor Mallard, who Wootton referred to as an "Ardern loyalist".
"I know you want clicks but I prefer an approach that values lives especially the old, the young and the vulnerable. We have lost less than 10 per million while UK has lost 350+ per million. Maybe that doesn't matter to you," Mallard responded.
