Mike's Minute: Why are we waiting for another Covid response?

I read that apparently the Government are about to give a formal response this month to the Covid Inquiry Phase Two report. 

Brooke van Velden, who drove it, was so concerned about the mistake made around Covid vaccine advice for 12–17-year-olds, and the fact Chris Hipkins said he didn’t see any advice, when in fact he did. 

She went off to seek advice as to what to do. 

They told her what you would expect they would, which was, roughly, you could do a lot, do a bit, or do nothing. 

The trouble with Royal Commissions is once they are done, they are done, and launching yet another inquiry, she rightly decided, would be wasting everyone's time. 

So she has passed it off to the Health Minister, and we stand by. 

The tricky thing here is accountability: will there ever be any? 

Hipkins and Bloomfield, the two critical players here, never turned up in person to the Commission. Once the mistake was discovered, that the paperwork on the vaccine did get to Hipkins in Cabinet, no one seems to want to know anything about it. 

The head of the inquiry, Grant Illingworth KC, doesn’t answer questions. "The report can speak for itself," he tells everyone. Hipkins relied on the faulty report to say he never saw anything, even though he did, and Bloomfield refuses all comment. 

I go back to my original request; that the Government do things properly, which was an adversarial inquiry i.e. they had the power to force people to turn up. Because when they don’t and the Q&A is all back and forward on paper, look what happens. 

And what does happen? Well, nothing, clearly. 

I'm happy to be proven wrong, but what is the Health Minister going to do? What happens to Hipkins or Bloomfield, apart from nothing? 

Mistakes were made in Covid, so we have two Commissions. Commission one is a whitewash, Commission two missed critical detail, so more mistakes are made. 

Does that give you confidence that the next time we have an epidemic we are any better off? 

Of course not. 

So as we await the so-called response, what was the point?   

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Apparently I read the government are about to give a
formal response this month to the COVID Commission part to report.
Now Brook van Velden, who drove this, was so concerned
about the mistake made around COVID vaccine advice for the
twelve to seventeen year olds. In the fact Chris Hipkins
said he didn't see any advice, when in fact he did.
She went off to seek advice as to what to do.
The boffins told her what you would expect. They would

(00:22):
roughly do a lot, do a bit, do nothing, trouble
with the Royal Commissioners. Once they're done, they're done and
launching yet another inquiry. She decided rightly would be wasting
everyone's time, so she's passed it off to the Health
Minister and we stand by. Apparently tricky thing here is accountability.
Will there ever be any Hipkins and Bloomfield, the two
critical players, have never turned up in person to the Commission.

(00:45):
Once the mistake was discovered that the paperwork on the
vaccine did get to Hopkins in cabinet, no one seems
to want to know anything about it. The head of
the inquiry, the Casey Illingworth, doesn't answer questions. These days,
the report can speak for itself, he tells everyone. Hipkins
relied on the faulty report to say he never saw anything,
even though he did, and Bloomfield refuses or comment. I
go back to my original request that the government do

(01:07):
things properly, which was an adversarial inquiry, i e. They
had the power to force people to turn up because
when they don't and won't, and the Q and A
is all back and forward paperwork. Look what happens and
what does happen? Well, clearly nothing happy to be proven wrong.
But what is the Health minister going to do? For
goodness sake? What happens to Hipkins or Bloomfield? Apart from nothing?

(01:29):
Mistakes were made in COVID, So we have two commissions
Commission ones of whitewash, Commission to miscritical detail. More more
mistakes are made. Does that give you confidence that the
next time we have an epidemic we're any better off?
Of course it doesn't. So what as we await? The
so called response was the point for more from the
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(01:52):
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