Document reveals minister's early tensions with Covid Commission chair
In February, officials at the Department of Internal Affairs briefed van Velden ahead of a meeting with the chair, Grant Illingworth KC, advising her to "make clear your expectation that the chair implements improvements in the inquiry's planning, risk assessment, and progress reporting, and failure by him to commit to do so will further undermine your confidence in him and in the inquiry".
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By Russell Palmer of RNZ All three coalition parties are criticising Labour's former ministers for refusing to appear at a public Covid-19 hearing, saying they're trying to avoid scrutiny. The second phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Covid-19 pandemic was secured in coalition agreements between all three governing parties. The chair, Grant Illingworth KC, yesterday confirmed that a week-long public hearing with decision-makers would not go ahead because former ministers had refused to participate. They include former prime minister Dame Jacinda Ardern, current Labour leader Chris Hipkins, who was at times the health and Covid-19 response minister, former finance minister Grant Robertson and former health minister and current MP Ayesha Verrall, Those former ministers argue they have provided ample evidence privately to the commission, which - despite having the power to - declined to summons them, saying on balance it was "undesirable given that the former ministers continue to co-operate with the evidence-gathering of the inquiry". "We are confident that the former ministers declining to attend the hearing does not hamper us in our ability to obtain the information we need to be able to properly complete our task. Public hearings are only one mechanism of obtaining evidence, and their use is restricted under our terms of reference," Illingworth said. The reasoning the ministers gave to the inquiry - according to a document the inquiry released - included that former ministers were conventionally interviewed privately for Royal Commissions of Inquiry, that they had cooperated so far and repeating the evidence publicly would be "performative rather than informative", and it risked the recordings being "tampered with, manipulated or otherwise misused". The document noted other witnesses and their families had faced abuse after appearing in public hearings, including in the Royal Commission held in July. Hipkins told RNZ's Morning Report programme today he has been interviewed in private, answered every question fully and even given the commission more information than what he had originally been asked. He accused those involved with the Royal Commission of not knowing what they wanted because they had said public hearings wouldn't be held for five reasons, including avoiding participants being subject to abuse. 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Hipkins earlier spoke to reporters at Parliament to defend his decision, and Dr Verrall provided a written statement. Robertson, who is now vice chancellor at the University of Otago, did not respond to RNZ's requests for comment. At Parliament, senior National MP Chris Bishop used the general debate yesterday to call attention to their refusal, saying it was "perhaps unsurprising". "They are ashamed of their record, and they know that held up to the light the decisions they made in 2020 and 2021 and 2022 have led us into the problems we are enduring today. "It was really clear from the second half of 2020 and into 2021 that further stimulus of the New Zealand economy was not only not required, it was counterproductive." He said Treasury pointed to 36% of spending for the Covid response happening after June 2021. "At that point, GDP had already returned to its pre-pandemic levels and inflation was already outside the band and approaching 7.3 percent ... from financial year 2015 to 2019, core Crown debt was actually flat - it actually went down a bit. But from 2019 to 2023, net core Crown debt increased by 169 percent to $155 billion. "That is the debt disaster this government inherited. That is the inflation disaster this government inherited. That is the cause of the recession this government inherited." ACT leader David Seymour mimed running away from reporters before saying "kidding - that's the other guys". He said a lot of people would see the former ministers refusing to appear publicly as "running from accountability, and that's what erodes that trust". "I would have thought if you cared about this country and responding to its next pandemic, which will happen, then you'd want to front up and tell your story," he said. 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