Commission of Inquiry into Government's Covid-19 response wraps up first session of hearings
Photo:
www.covid19lessons.royalcommission.nz
The week long
Royal Commission of Inquiry into the government's Covid-19 response
has finalised its first session of public hearings in Auckland.
The inquiry aimed to look at lessons learned from the government response, in order to prepare for future pandemics.
Friday's fifth and final day of evidence in Auckland, included testimonies from mandated industries, nursing and midwifery sectors and researchers.
Autism New Zealand research and advocacy adviser, Lee Patrick was among the first to speak on Friday.
She said the impacts on disability support staff for New Zealand's autistic community were still being felt.
Patrick said while there were some resignations due to the mandate, other staff left due to the pressures of childcare and lockdown.
However, she said Autism New Zealand was in favour of the vaccine mandates.
"Where I think the vaccine mandate did hit quite hard was disability support workers and that's because there weren't enough to begin with.
"It's an understaffed area, the few disability support workers that choose to resign or who couldn't keep their jobs after refusing to be vaccinated had an enormous impact.
"These are people who work intimately with disabled people, come into their homes, in some cases help them bath and use the toilet, in other cases help them cook meals and clean their homes, it's a very close relationship.
"Losing that relationship particularly for an autistic person or a person who struggles to communicate, who relies on that predictability and routine is an enormous blow."
Patrick said many in the community wanted exemptions for their support workers and were willing to accept the risk of having an unvaccinated person in their home because of that important relationship.
She said many of those workers who left the sector during the pandemic have not returned.
Johnny Mulheron, general manager of ambulance operations for St John said they lost 1 percent of their front-line staff during the pandemic.
One percent of front-line St John staff were lost due to the Covid-19 vaccine mandate. (File photo)
Photo:
RNZ/Calvin Samuel
He said in general, most workers within St John were supportive of the vaccine and the mandates.
"Prior to the mandate we have 65 percent of our people get vaccinated, that's over 8000 people.
"Our technical advisory group supported that mandate and its not unheard of in health to have vaccination and immunisation evidence... we have a policy and immunisation schooled and an expectation."
He said St John had since re-engaged with the majority of those people who had left because of the mandates.
But others within the health sector issued warnings to the commissioners.
The New Zealand Nurses organisation president Anne Daniels said they're not prepared should another pandemic hit.
Daniels said she had concerns around resourcing levels in public health, especially considering there were suggestions within the health sector another pandemic could arise in the coming years.
"It seems we might have a pandemic within the next two years and we're not ready for it.
"More recently the funding of our health infrastructure has been decimated in my opinion, particularly in public health."
Daniels said it could be difficult to implement findings and recommendations from this inquiry in time, considering they're not expected to be released until next year.
Claire Macdonald of the New Zealand College of Midwives said Health NZ wasn't prepared for the end of the vaccination mandate in September 2022.
She said this was despite the government emphasising the mandates were a temporary measure.
Macdonald said it caused the health service to be "starved unnecessarily of staff".
"There was no policy in place within Health NZ to re-employ those who had left, midwives or any other health profession, under the mandate and it was advised that so called mandate would remain in place until a national vaccine policy was put in place.
"That was initially expected to take two to three weeks, it took nine months and there was no re-employment in just about every hospital of unvaccinated health workers until that national vaccination policy was put in place in July 2023."
Macdonald said they provided intensive support for some midwives "to be able to go back into those facilities and work as locums or contractors or anything that meant they could provide midwifery care but not be under an employment contract which is a work around and completely ridiculous".
The inquiry would continue next month in Wellington and provide a second session of public hearings.
These hearings would gather evidence from key decision makers who led and informed the government's response to the pandemic.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero
,
a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
Outdated alcohol guidelines understate health risks, ministry documents reveal
HNZ considered updating the safe drinking guidelines was crucial. Photo: RNZ New Zealand's official low-risk drinking guidelines are outdated and "understate the health risks" of alcohol, according to Health New Zealand (HNZ) documents. Efforts to update the guidelines were halted after alcohol lobbyists complained to a Ministry of Health general manager Ross Bell. Bell, who works within the ministry's Public Health Agency, says he intervened to clear up confusion about whether HNZ or the Ministry of Health (MOH) should manage the guidelines. He said the MOH would manage them now but that work was on hold while it considered its priorities. Documents released to RNZ under the Official Information Act show why HNZ considered updating the safe drinking guidelines was crucial and that it saw "scrutiny from the alcohol industry" as a risk factor in the process. New Zealand's drinking guidelines say that to stay low-risk, men should have no more than 15 drinks per week and women ten. The maximum number of drinks recommended per week to stay low-risk (for men and women) is set at two in Canada, ten in Australia and 14 in the UK. Canada, Australia and the UK all significantly reduced their safe drinking guidelines in recent years as evidence emerged about the health risks of alcohol, which is linked to seven types of cancer. Photo: RNZ A November 2024 memo from HNZ alcohol harm prevention manager Tom Devine said New Zealand's guidelines, written in 2011, were now out of date. "The evidence around alcohol and its risks to health has evolved since then and other countries like ours, such as the United Kingdom (in 2016), Australia (in 2020), and Canada (in 2023), have updated their Alcohol & Health Advice, resulting in much lower recommended drinking limits," Devine wrote. "The current advice is complex (and) out of step with other jurisdictions." He said the current guidelines also did not meet the needs of pregnant and breast-feeding women and young people. "A review and update are necessary to ensure the advice is clear, inclusive and based on the most up-to-date evidence." Another HNZ document, written in January 2024, said "The current advice does not reflect the latest scientific evidence meaning that it understates the health risks from alcohol." The documents show HNZ commissioned Massey University to work on the first phase of a review in February 2024 - at a cost of about $130,000 - but later that year Ross Bell from the Ministry of Health intervened. Emails obtained by RNZ show a lobbyist with the Brewer's Association emailed Bell in October 2024 asking why a HNZ website was reporting that the drinking guidelines were under review. He emailed again a month later complaining that references to the review were still on the website, run by HNZ, and also took issue with the fact the site linked to Canadian drinking guidelines. Bell emailed HNZ in December 2024: "All work on this project will now pause. You will update relevant Health NZ websites to remove references to the review and also to other jurisdictions' guidelines (including the Canadian one)." Bell has declined requests for an interview with RNZ, but in a previous statement said material was removed from the website to avoid confusion, as the drinking guidelines were now led by the Ministry of Health not Health New Zealand, which runs the website. He said that was an internal decision by MOH and that a review of the drinking guidelines was now on hold while the ministry considered its priorities. But the documents released to RNZ show HNZ believe it is crucial to update the guidance. A memo from HNZ alcohol harm prevention manager Tom Devine said health professionals relied on accurate guidelines, which were "foundational" for screening, interventions and referral for treatment. "This is where health professionals ask patients about their alcohol consumption using the advice as a baseline to assess risk, which informs the need for brief interventions or referral for counselling or treatment." Devine's memo said one of the risks in reviewing the guidelines was "scrutiny from the alcohol industry" and his mitigation strategy included "a strategic communications plan to articulate the evidence base and reasoning". Associate Professor Andy Towers, the co-director of the Mental Health & Addiction Programme at Massey University, worked on the initial stages of the review for HNZ. He said the current guidelines understated the risk. "There's more and more evidence now, especially with longitudinal health data, to show that even low levels of alcohol use over a long time can result in some significant alcohol related harms." He said sticking with the 2011 guidelines could lull drinkers into a false sense of security. "For us to set low risk advice thresholds that are quite high, much higher than other countries, means that we will continue to have serious alcohol related harms occurring across the country, in communities, and that will flow through into hospitals." Cancer Society evidence and insights lead Emma Shields said a review of the drinking guidelines was needed to bring them into line with the latest evidence and international guidance. She said alcohol caused seven different types of cancer including breast, bowel and oesophageal. "When it comes to cancer risk, there is no 'safe' level of alcohol use, and even small amounts of alcohol increase the risk of cancer."
RNZ News
a day ago
- RNZ News
Mediawatch: Pandemic probe media focus flipped to politicians
Representatives of pressure group Voice of Freedom addressing the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Covid-19 response, last Thursday. Photo: Royal Commission livestream "It's the big one. The inquiry into the Covid response kicks off this morning. It looks at lockdowns. It looks at all of the things you hated most," Ryan Bridge told viewers of NZME's streaming show Herald Now last Monday morning . But the public hearings which ran all week turned out not to be such a 'big one' for the media. "I saw the Covid inquiry in the news this morning and I just thought: how long does this have to go on for?" an exasperated Lara Greaves - an associate professor in politics - told Bridge later in the same show. She's not the only one who feels that way. But the hearings were barely in the news after they got under way on Monday. On Tuesday the inquiry was well down the running order in morning and evening news shows, long after coverage of the mushroom poisoning trial in Australia. On Wednesday the possibility of moa being regenerated with the backing of Sir Peter Jackson was a bigger story for most outlets. There was a little more coverage on Thursday when anti-vaccine and anti-lockdown groups appeared, ahead of anti-conspiracy theory group FACT and immunologist Professor Graeme LeGros later on. But by the time they wrapped up on Friday the hearings had virtually vanished from bulletins. And what was said over the five days generated less coverage than questions about whether politicians would appear at hearings in future. As for "the things you hated most" - people hated different things. Asthmatic Annie Collins told the inquiry on the first day she thought lockdowns worked and saved lives, and vaccine misinformation online was the real problem. "I think that was a major flaw in our system. All those social media streams should have been blocked. They were disgusting and they were basically lies," she said. Shutting down social media channels was out of scope for this inquiry, but the chairman Grant Illingworth KC told Ryan Bridge on Monday the big decisions made at the time were certainly not. Employment relations and safety manager Paul Jarvie and Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck. Photo: Screengrab / Covid 19 Inquiry When the Herald Now host pressed the chairman about getting the big political decision-makers in front of the inquiry he said they would be invited to come and give evidence at a second set of hearings next month. When asked if former PM Jacinda Ardern would be one of them, Illingworth replied: "There are issues in relation to our powers when people are out of the country. If she's in the country, we will consider her position." He would not reveal details of specific communications, but he did say "those things are being worked through" and that "we will be fair, open and transparent at the appropriate time." That response was misinterpreted by many in the media as meaning Jacinda Ardern had been asked to attend - and either had not yet responded or that the chair would not say if she had or not. RNZ amended its reporting to make it clear the Commission said no decision had yet been made about who would appear at the August hearings. But Ryan Bridge continued to press for Ardern's appearance on Herald Now and Newstalk ZB. David Seymour - appearing as the acting PM - told Ryan Bridge the former PM should front up to answer questions about "the most significant political and economic event of this century so far." But Seymour was also at pains to point out that the inquiry is independent, and would make its own decision. That was the reason Labour leader Chris Hipkins - health minister during the period covered by the inquiry - gave on Morning Report the next day for not giving a view on Ardern's attendance. Hipkins also dodged a question about whether he'd discussed the issue with Jacinda Ardern herself. On Herald Now on Tuesday, Chris Hipkins confirmed he was cooperating with the inquiry, but equivocated on whether he himself would appear before it in August. He also made it clear he really didn't fancy what he thought had become a political process. "The terms of reference specifically exclude decisions made when New Zealand First were part of the government. So I think that the terms of reference have been deliberately constructed to achieve a particular outcome, particularly around providing a platform for those who have conspiracy theorists' views," he said. NZ First demanded the inquiry when forming the coalition government in 2023. The party even invoked 'agree to disagree' provisions in that agreement when National persisted with the first Royal Commission the Labour government had already launched. The second phase opened this week with new commissioners and expanded terms of reference, which meant that fringe voices opposed to the vaccine mandates, and in some cases the vaccine itself, would be heard this time and heard but not cross examined. "It seems to have been specifically written into the terms of reference that they get maximum airtime," Hipkins told Herald Now , adding that some of those given a platform had inspired the occupation of Parliament in 2022, where platforms for gallows were built - including one with his own name on it. One of the groups that prompted the occupation was the anti-vaccine, anti-lockdown group Voices for Freedom. The group's Facebook page was taken offline in 2021 for what the platform said was "misinformation that could cause physical harm." "You seriously expect the people of New Zealand to accept that deaths being reported internationally (in 2020) were not genuinely from Covid?" Grant Illingworth KC asked them on Thursday. "We're not disputing that there were deaths. We're simply saying that it gets very complex, especially when people are being funded in order to tick a box to say that a death was caused by Covid," VFF co-founder Claire Deeks replied. Voices for Freedom is also promoting a Face the Music campaign pressing the inquiry's commissioners to summon Jacinda Ardern and others and "hold them accountable for their COVID abuse." Their online petition depicts Jacinda Ardern, Chris Hipkins, Sir Ashley Bloomfield all shoulder-to-shoulder in a courtroom dock. It's not exactly in tune with the evidence-gathering and non-adversarial approach of this Royal Commission's mandate. But others in the media weighed in behind the idea. "It is actually bizarre that we are having a Covid inquiry without Dame Jacinda's participation. She owes it to Kiwis to front up," Stuff's 'good news' correspondent Patrick Gower declared on Wednesday. That was triggered by Sir Ian Taylor's open letter to Jacinda Ardern last weekend - also published by Stuff - accusing Ardern of turning her back on the nation of five million for "a waka for one." But the same day The Post had reported a spokesperson for Dame Jacinda Ardern said she would provide evidence to the Covid-19 inquiry if asked - and "discussions were ongoing about the best way for it to occur." "Fact: Ardern has agreed to give evidence to phase two of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Government's response to Covid-19," The Herald's Fran O'Sullivan stated bluntly this weekend. "There is room to examine all of this dispassionately - not try to (figuratively) hang her again as the more deranged attempted when they wheeled out their noose on Parliament's grounds." For all the urging in the media, the story has actually been the same since March when the inquiry issued a minute , making it clear it could not take a legalistic or adversarial approach. "The commissioners expect that individuals will be prepared to attend interviews with them and or officers of the inquiry on a voluntary basis," the minute stated, regarding interviews with decision makers. "The interviews may be conducted online or in person, recorded and may be transcribed for the public record." In the end opinions about a point that was mostly moot overshadowed the coverage of what the commissioners were actually told in five days of public, livestreamed hearings. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 days ago
- RNZ News
Gas leak at Feilding house hospitalises couple
A Fire and Emergency hazmat unit was sent from Whanganui to the house on Saturday. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone An elderly couple remain in hospital, after emergency services responded to a gas leak at a Manawatū home. Emergency services were called to the single-storey house in Feilding shortly before 9.30am Saturday, and a Hato Hone St John spokesperson said four patients were assessed and treated by its crews. Feilding volunteer brigade chief fire officer Bradley Shanks said both occupants of the house in Huffington Place were taken to hospital. One was found unconscious and remained in a serious condition on Saturday evening. The other - whom Hato Hone said earlier was in a moderate condition when taken to hospital - was still in a moderate condition by Saturday evening. Shanks said two bystanders - one a relative and the other a neighbour - raised the alarm, and were also treated by paramedics for minor injuries, after going into the house. Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ) said crews were at the scene for more than six hours and fire crews had turned off LPG cylinders attached to the house. A hazmat unit "with a super-sensitive gas detector" was deployed to the house from Whanganui, a FENZ spokesperson said. It arrived late morning, and was used to check gas levels and ventilate the property. On Saturday evening, Shanks said investigators were yet to determine the cause of the leak, but they had ruled out the LPG cylinders attached to the house as the cause and were now looking at other options. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
