Brooke van Velden: Internal Affairs Minister on the Government's planned second phase of the Covid-19 inquiry

Key figures in our Covid-19 response could have to give evidence publicly for phase two of the Government inquiry.

Its focus is vaccine efficacy and safety, Auckland and Northland's extended lockdowns and the disruption to health, education, and business.

Phase One examined the lessons learned from the pandemic.

Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says it's possible Dame Jacinda Ardern and Sir Ashley Bloomfield could be among those needing to appear.

"It could be a range of different people. Like I say, I can't give a guarantee on what that will look like, because that's up to the Commission at the end of the day."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good afternoon. The government has announced it's expanding the COVID inquiry.
It'll keep the existing one that was started by Labor,
which mainly looks into the health calls and the economic ramifications,
but it's now going to add a second part to
that inquiry. It's going to look at all the juicy stuff,
the extended lockdowns in Auckland and Northland, the vaccine effe efficacy,
vaccine safety, the extent of disruption to our health, education
and businesses and so on. Brook van Velden is the

(00:21):
Internal Affairs Minister who ordered this and is with us now.
Hey Brook, Hey, how are you well? Thank you? Of
the controversial stuff that happened. Is there anything you're not
looking into.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Now? What we've done is we've gone out for public
submissions and we've had really fulsome submissions come back out
of thirteen thousand people. We've looked in detail at what
people would like us to look into, plus added both
with New Zealand First Coalition commitments as well, and I
think we've got a really good pass board. There's still

(00:53):
a lot of concern I know out during the public
of if we have another pandemic, how will the new
Zealand government re ac and there's a lot of lessons
to be learned and I think this helps us answer
those questions and is a really good pass forward that
this government is creating.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Okay, so you're looking at mandates inflation, confiscating rat kits,
spending of COVID fund on art funding, closing schools, closing businesses,
mi IQ, restricting access to dying relatives, all of that.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Well, the technicalities of everything that you've been talking about
will come out in full detail in a few more months,
but the broad scope of this is that we're looking
into how the government balanced all of the other goals
of government versus COVID, you know, things like breastcatterter screening
and why that was put on PUDs, Why it was

(01:44):
that kids weren't able to access school and the effect
that they will have on their social well being over time,
and why on Earth it was so hard for businesses
just to be open and do their business, and why
the government was stopping that. Those things come through really
loud and clear, as well as concern about whether or
not those mandates were right. I think from my own perspective,

(02:06):
I don't think they were. However, we've got to look
at how we would do better in the future, and
that's what we'll be going into great detail on would.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
You be expecting Jacinda Ardurn and Ashley Bloomfield to actually
be giving evidence?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Well, part of this requirement for terms of reference going forward,
is it part of the evidence will be held in public.
It's not for me at this point to say exactly
who would be in those hearings in public, because that's
up to the commissioners and we do have.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
To But this is a possibility, right, It's a possibility
that Jacinda or Ashley are sitting there in public answering
questions about this.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, look, it's a possibility that it could be a
range of different people. Like I say, I can't give
a guarantee on what that will look like because that's
up to the Commissioners at the end of the day.
As part of their independence.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Listeners agree to disagree. Clause that's been invoked by New
Zealand first doesn't strike me as a particularly a big deal,
is it.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
No, not at all. But I think what's really at
play here is that as a coalition we've found a
really good path forward that meets both coalition agreements and
everybody is on board. All we have here is one
issue about something in the past, which was Labour's royal
permission in terms of reference and the commissioners. I don't

(03:22):
think there's a lot to see there. What we have
as a government working really well and also acknowledging that
there might be a point of difference on that one
little issue.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Good stuff, brook thank you very much, Brooklyn Valved and
the Internal Affairs Minister. Listen. I'm just watching the cricket
at the moment, with all the whooping and hollering and
crying and the hugging and stuff that's going on. It
would appear that Afghanistan has beaten Bangladesh in the T
twenty World Cup and advance through and they are, let
me tell you, fizzing. For more from Heather Duplessy Alan Drive,
listen live to News Talk sai'd Be from four pm weekdays,

(03:52):
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