Jason Walls: Political Editor on Winston Peters invoking the Agree to Disagree clause

New Zealand First has invoked the Agree-to-Disagree Coalition clause. 

Winston Peters says his Party doesn't support the Government continuing the Covid Commission of Inquiry in its current form.  

The clause is nestled within New Zealand First's Governance agreement with National, allowing Peters and his MPs to speak publicly about a Cabinet decision.  

He's used it voice opposition to the Government splitting the inquiry into two phases, saying the first phase was nothing more than a Labour Party political tool. 

Peters agrees with Phase Two, focusing on vaccine efficacy and safety, and the extended lockdowns in Auckland and Northland. 

Political Editor Jason Walls told Mike Hosking that as Christopher Luxon said, this is a mature way to go about it. 

He said that this is exactly how it’s supposed to work between the two parties, which is why the clause was written into the coalition agreement in the first place. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm first agreed to disagree clause and voked as part
of the coalition deal in New Zealand First not happy
over the Act call to extend the COVID inquiry two parts.
Current bit that's underway is the issue. New Zealand First
sees that as a Labor Party stitch up Act. Want
it concluded before the second bit gets underway. Our political
editor Jason Wills with us, Jason, very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
To make some credit to Luxeon if this plays out
the way we hope. In other words, New Zealand First disagrees,
they pull the trigger on the clause. That's life and
we move on. That's mature, isn't it exactly?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
And that's what Christopher Luxon was it pains to say yesterday.
This isn't a coalition and chaos or cracks in the
coalition agreement. This is exactly essentially how it's supposed to
work between the two parties. And that's why this clause
was written into the coalition arrangement and the Act Party
has one as well. We saw this exercise with New
Zealand First and the Labor Government the last time around,

(00:51):
although it happened quite a lot towards the end of
the tenure, and it was a little less civil than
this one. But yeah, as Christopher Luxon said, this is
just a mature way of going about it. I mean,
the worst case scenario would be a situation where New
Zealand first were leaking this sort of information or Winston
was coming out and making a fuss publicly. But if
you haven't agreed to disagree clause and things are still

(01:13):
going ahead the way that cabinet decided, then everything essentially
is going expected.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
What's the act argument about keeping Part one in place,
cost and waste? They're underway, we might as well see
what they got.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Yeah, pretty much. I mean we've had a whole Phase
one that we didn't know was just Phase one until
very recently, and they said that it's the fiscally prudent
way forward in terms of going forward with that inquiry.
Brock van Velden, who was in charge of this, so
that there was a lot of evidence gathered to day
and it would have been a waste of evidence, resource

(01:46):
and the commissioner's time to end this and just essentially
do away with all of that information. So, I mean
it's a very act party reason and it makes sense
as well. I mean, they have already collected a lot
of information from that COVID inquiry. It would be it
wouldn't make a lot of sense just to throw it away,
just to do it again.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Timeframe is a problem for me. I mean, twenty twenty
six is a long time away, and that's a lot
of investigation, a lot of money, a lot of energy,
isn't it.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Yeah, And I think that a lot of people, I mean,
no one's going to forget about COVID, but a lot
of the initial concerns that people had, you know, by
that time, there's a lot of other things that have
happened by that time. So it's a long time I mean.
But then again, you would say that this COVID was
a big thing and it's going to take a long
time to gather all this information. But a lot of

(02:33):
people will be looking at that time frame and thinking, look,
that's just too long.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Always a pleasure. Jason go Well to die Jason Wolves,
our political leader, to Brooklyn Felden for more from News
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