John MacDonald: The Covid inquiry is messy - but a must-have

This might be because I’m still recovering from the Bird Flu/Man Flu combo that had me stuck in bed last week. Or maybe, on this occasion, Winston Peters is actually making sense. 

Either way, I agree with him that it’s Mickey Mouse that we have an epidemiologist who was involved in our COVID response, leading the inquiry into it. The Royal Commission. 

Which, by the way, I think is critical. I know it would be very easy to decide that we are all over this COVID thing and what good is a royal commission going to do? And who says that when another pandemic happens we’re going to even bother using what we’ve learned this time around? 

They are all risks. But, as far as I’m concerned, they are not reasons not to have an official inquiry.  

But back to Tony Blakeley. He was one of those people along with the likes of Michael Baker etc who were on TV night-and-day talking about all the modelling and how sick we were going to get blah blah blah blah blah. 

And being humans, we all had our favourites, didn’t we? And there were others, of course, that some of us couldn’t stand. And when it comes to my personal favourites, Tony Blakely was one of mine. 

He’s a kiwi but he’s based in Melbourne and he always seemed to do his TV interviews in front of one of those glass block walls that were the in-thing back in the 80s. And I could never work out whether he was in some 80s-throwback hospital or whether he had some funky 80s-inspired apartment. 

And I’ll admit that I probably got so distracted by the glass block wall thing that I probably missed a lot of what he actually had to say. Either way, I liked him. I thought he was a good guy who seemed to know what he was on about. 

But, as well as being one of the media’s COVID rent-a-mouths, he also had the ear of the Labour-led government - which asked him for his advice on how New Zealand should be responding to the COVID pandemic. 

And, when you think about it, it does seem crazy that he’s now the guy in charge of  running a fine tooth comb through New Zealand’s COVID response so that we can learn some lessons and do a better job next time around. Because, if there’s one thing we can all agree on, there will be a “next time around”. 

So Winston has never been happy that one of Labour’s COVID mates has had the job of leading the COVID-19 Inquiry. And he’s not happy that Tony Blakely is going to stay in charge, either. 

Which is why he’s pulling out the “agree-to-disagree” clause in his party’s coalition agreement with National. 

Which is somewhat academic. Because what the Government has done is split the inquiry into two phases. So Phase 1 is what we’ve had up until now and which will continue until November - with Tony Blakely in charge. 

And then, in November, Phase 2 will begin. Which will look into things such as the vaccines and vaccine safety; the extended lockdowns in Auckland and Northland; and the extent of disruption to people’s lives and businesses. 

And it’s not going to be an overnight thing. Phase 2 of the Inquiry will begin in November and final recommendations are expected to be delivered in February 2026. About 20 months from now. Just shy of two years. 

And I’m happy with that. Because I think it is critical that this work is done. It would be a wasted opportunity if we didn’t put a spotlight on how New Zealand handled the COVID pandemic and commit ourselves to learning from the cock-ups. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Canterbury Morning's podcast with John McDonald
from News Talk ZB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
This might be because I'm still recovering from the bird
flu man flu combo that had me stuck in bed
last week, or maybe on this occasion, Winston Peters is
actually making sense. Either way, I agree with him that
it is mickey mouse that we have an epidemiologist who
was involved in our COVID response leading the inquiry into it.

(00:34):
The Royal Commission, which by the way, I think is critical.
I know would be very easy to decide that we're
all over this COVID thing, and you know, what good
is a Royal commission going to do? And who says
that when another pandemic happens, we're going to even bother
using what we've learned this time around. Yep, they're all risks,
but as far as I'm concerned, they are not reasons

(00:55):
not to have an official inquiry. But back to Tony Blakely,
he was one of those people, along with the likes
of Michael Baker, etc. Or all the others or the
other talk heads who were on TV night and day
talking about all the modeling and how sick we were
going to get blah blah blah blah blah blah, and
being human beings, of course we all had our favorites,

(01:15):
didn't we And there were others, of course that some
of us couldn't stand. And when it comes to my
personal favorites, Tiny Blakeley it was one of them. He's
a Kiwi, but he's based in Melbourne, and he always
seemed to do his TV interviews anyway in front of
one of those glass block walls that were the given
thing back in the eighties. And I could ever work
out whether he was in some sort of eighties throwback

(01:37):
hospital or whether he had some funky eighties inspired apartment.
And I'll admit I probably got so distracted by the
glass block wall thing that I possibly missed a lot
of what he actually had to say. Either way, I
liked the card of his gym. I thought he was
a good guy who seemed to know what he was
on about. But as well as being one of the

(01:58):
media's COVID renter mouths, he also had the ear of
the Labor led government, which asked him for his advice
on how New Zealand should respond to the COVID pandemic.
And when you think about it. It does seem crazy
that he's now the guy in charge of running a
fine tooth comb through New Zealand's COVID response that we
can learn some lessons and do a better job next

(02:19):
time round, because if there is one thing we can
all agree on, if there's one thing you and I
can agree on, there will be next time round. So
Winston's never been happy that one of Labour's COVID mates
has had the job of leading the COVID nineteen inquiry
COVID nineteen inquiry, and he's not happy that Tony Blakely
is going to stay in charge either, which is why

(02:39):
he pulling up the agree to disagree clause in his
party's coalition agreement with the National Party, which is somewhat academic,
because what the government's done is it's split the inquiry
into two phases. So Phase one is what we've had
up until now and which will continue until November with
Tony Blakeley in charge. And then in November Phase two

(03:02):
will begin, which will look and think such as the
vaccines and vaccine in safety, the extent of lockdowns in
Auckland and Northland, the extent of disruption on people's lives,
and businesses, all that and other stuff, all the things
New Zealand first wanted included in the first place. You
might have heard Internal Affairs Minster Brook van Velden talking
to Mike this morning and describing what's happening as an

(03:24):
elegant solution keeping the deemiologist in charge until phase one
of the inquiries finished, which Winston still isn't happy about,
and then bringing in new people to look after phase two.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
What I'm looking for for the new commissioners is a
range of experience in a legal background as well as
economics background, and ideally having a health background as well,
So that's the ideal mix up. In August, I'll be
coming back with the exact names and the terms of
reference all signed off, but at this stage I can't

(03:58):
say who exactly will be there. We're still working our
way through those details.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Fair enough, and it's not going to be an overnight
thing either. Phase two of the inquiry will begin in
November and final recommendations are expected to be delivered in
February twenty twenty six, about twenty months from now, so
just shy of two years. I'll tell you what I'm
happy with that. I am happy with that because I
think it is critical that this work is done. But
I want to find out. I want to find out
how much you care about it. And I'm picking that

(04:23):
you will be one of two types. You'll either be
like me, and you'll think that it would be a
wasted opportunity if we didn't put a spotlight or a
fine tooth comb through New Zealand's handling of the COVID pandemic,
and if we didn't commit ourselves to learning from the
cockups because there were cock ups, or I'm picking you'll

(04:44):
be so over COVID that the whole idea of spending
another two years pouring over the coals of a COVID
responseble have you asking where you can go to watch
some paint dry.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
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