Former prime minister Jacinda Ardern will take a role teaching empathetic leadership, social cohesion and civic trust at the University of Sydney, despite her Covid policies causing deep divisions in New Zealand.

The university has appointed Ardern as a Professor of Practice, where she will deliver guest lectures, run masterclasses and mentor students.

Voices for Freedom and RCR co-founder Alia Bland’s open letter criticising Jacinda Ardern’s appointment has attracted almost 600,000 views in its first 21 hours, with major international accounts sharing it.

Bland said her organisation received up to 1,000 emails a day during the Covid response from people facing job losses, financial hardship and family breakdowns. She argued vaccine mandates and restrictions divided New Zealand and damaged trust in its public institutions.

“I have no objection to universities studying Ardern’s leadership. In fact, I would encourage it!” Bland wrote, suggesting students could get a lesson in what not to do.

Bland objected to celebrating Ardern as a leader in empathy without acknowledging the human cost critics attributed to her government’s pandemic policies. “Her government deliberately created a two-class society. Ardern herself acknowledged that publicly,” she said.

Destiny Church Bishop Brian Tamaki joined the many voices online criticising the appointment. “Now she’s teaching social cohesion? You can’t make this stuff up!… To many Kiwis, Jacinda Ardern is the most hated PM in NZ history,” Tamaki said.

Read Alia Bland’s open letter on RCR.

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Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner Dr Anna Cody has confirmed that a biological male who identifies as a woman and induces lactation can be covered by breastfeeding discrimination protections under the Sex Discrimination Act.

During a Senate Estimates hearing this week, Liberal Senator Leah Blyth asked Cody whether section 7AA, which refers to discrimination against a woman on the grounds of breastfeeding, could protect a biological male who identifies as a woman and induces lactation.

Blyth pointed to the explanatory memorandum, which said the protections were intended to apply to women who breastfeed. Cody’s answer was brief: “Yes, Senator”.

Blyth later called the position “state-sanctioned perversion,” saying: “A biological man cannot breastfeed. It’s time to end this madness and put the interests of children first”.

Liberal Senator Michaelia Cash also pressed Cody on what the interpretation means for women’s rights, including women-only events.

It follows an earlier clash between Cash and Cody over whether pregnancy discrimination protections could apply to a transgender woman if an employer assumed they could become pregnant.

The exchange once again puts the spotlight on how far sex discrimination law is being stretched to accommodate gender identity, and what that means for protections based on biological sex.

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ACT is promising smaller government, lower debt and changes to healthcare, retirement savings and welfare if returned to government.

Leader David Seymour unveiled the party’s manifesto in Auckland yesterday, which outlined plans to cut $22 billion in spending over four years and leave government debt $12.4 billion lower by 2031 than forecast.

ACT also proposed reducing the number of ministers and department heads, removing tax on KiwiSaver investment earnings and scrapping the government’s KiwiSaver contribution.

It would gradually raise the pension age to 67 by 2035, while retaining KiwiSaver withdrawals at 65 and allowing earlier pension access for people in physically demanding jobs.

Healthcare commitments included an additional $400 million for general practice over four years and funding pharmacists to treat more common illnesses.

ACT also proposed a three-year minimum wage freeze, spending restrictions for work-ready Jobseeker recipients and at least three years’ imprisonment without parole for a third burglary conviction.

Other commitments included cutting farming regulations, basing public services on need rather than race, scrapping the Zero Carbon Act and seeking to renegotiate the country’s Paris climate commitment.

On migration, Seymour said the party had dropped its proposal to scrap Permanent Resident Visas after some migrants found it “disrespectful and exclusionary”.

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