Sir Ian Taylor: Kiwi entrepreneur on the start of the Covid inquiry's second phase

The second phase of the Covid-19 inquiry has begun, with many voices from business, tourism, and events venting frustration over the response.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry will run until Thursday - and many are wondering if former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will be called up to weigh in.

Sir Ian Taylor says it would be 'wonderful' if Ardern found a way to give some answers.

"It would perhaps reinforce the concept that everything she did was to be kind, to be part of the team of five million - and this is the time for the team of five million to come together to figure out how we deal to this better next time."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ryan Bridge, Part two of the COVID inquiry in a
cinema near you. This is the big Royal commission underway.
This phase of the inquiry looks at Lockdown's vaccine mandates,
all the really interesting stuff, terrible stuff, but interesting stuff.
This morning I caught up with the inquiry chair, Grant Ellingworth.
He's CAC and I asked him on Herald Now whether

(00:20):
former Prime Minister Jacinda a Dune will speak to the
inquiry At any point you'll ask just Cinda a Dune
to come. We will ask a number of people to come,
including Cinda Aderne. Well, we haven't formulated the final list.
Why wouldn't you put it on this she made all
the big calls. Well, there are issues in relation to
our powers when people are out of the country, for example. Ah,

(00:43):
so you've got to be in the country for the
jurisdiction to stick. If you're not, it doesn't. So Ian
Taylor's written, well, just a few open letters to the
Prime minister, former Prime minister in his time, and he's
with me this evening. Good evening, yeah, good, thank you,
thanks for being with me. Do you think that just
just under a Deurn should get the call up take
the call up.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
I mean, I think it would be wonderful if she did.
I mean it would perhaps reinforce the concept that, you know,
everything she did was to be kind, to be part
of the team of five million, And this is the
time for the team of five million to come together
to figure out, you know, how we deal to this
better next time, what went wrong, and to answer some

(01:28):
of the really, really big questions that have never been addressed.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Do you think people want answers or do you think
people want apologies or scalps?

Speaker 2 (01:40):
I think, you know, if I look at the feedback
that I'm seeing on my last open letter, I mean,
there are people screaming for scalps, screaming for my scalp,
screaming for hers. One of the things I think we
do far too much of is yell at each other
in New zeal And. You know, we've got to stop

(02:01):
that yelling. But somewhere along the line there is a
line to be drawn. And I am very comfortable with
what I wrote. It took me a long time to
do it. I thought very hard about it, but as
I watched the PR machinery kind of arrive in New

(02:22):
Zealand for the memoir, I could not forget the voices
of those who had called me while I was arguing
for different ways of doing this, and the families who
kid couldn't get home, my friend Mike Steadman who was
dying of cancer and couldn't get his gleen kids back.
I mean, there were thousands of those stories and we

(02:45):
had offered a solution and it wasn't taken up.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
In Taylor Animation Research Managing Director, appreciate your time. A
writer of many letters to our former Prime Minister who
will likely be invited whether she comes to the Royal Commission,
the COVID Commission of Inquiry, very different question. For more
from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news talks.

(03:09):
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