Occasionally, once in a great while, the bullshit world of politics tosses you a tiny little gift that’s enough to keep the heart beating strong. Sometimes that’s a gaffe or a slip up or some sort of associated blip. Sometimes it’s a controversial campaign caving in on itself in bloody, spectacular fashion. And then there’s days like today, where you wind up being gifted footage of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern receiving an incoming call from Australian PM Scott Morrison, and promptly choosing to ignore it.
Ardern fronted media in New Zealand a short time ago, confirming a September 19th election for Aotearoa, with her Labor Party-lead governing coalition looking to avoid becoming the first one-term New Zealand Government in 40-odd years.
And while that’s clearly the most important aspect of what Ardern had to say today for New Zealanders, the most important aspect to Australians was the fact that, mid press conference, Scotty From Marketing himself tried to hit Ardern up on the blower, and Jacinda – in front of a full throng of media cameras – left that bitch hanging.
In an even more serendipitous piece of timing, Ardern was in the middle of answering a question about whether New Zealand would match Australian efforts to evacuate Wuhan amid the growing coronavirus outbreak when the call came in.
A call which, I repeat, Jacinda Ardern gave absolute duck eggs to.
Here’s Jacinda Ardern receiving (and not taking) a call from Aussie PM Scott Morrison right while taking a question on collaboration with Australia. pic.twitter.com/gLUW7poyjs
— henry cooke (@henrycooke) January 28, 2020
Have you ever seen such a polite and lovely binning of a bothersome phone call? Christ almighty. I bet her voicemail message is wholesome as shit.
In an even more odd turn of events, Scott Morrison’s office confirmed it was indeed the Prime Minister himself who was calling Ardern at the time she let him ring out. Which just straight-up doesn’t seem like the kind of the the PMO would readily cop to, but we’re in a bold new world full of insane possibilities nowadays.
Letting the Prime Minister of Australia go to Voicemail. Boy do you ever love to see it.
