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Speaker 1: Good afternoon. The government has announced it's expanding the COVID inquiry.

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Speaker 1: It'll keep the existing one that was started by Labor,

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Speaker 1: which mainly looks into the health calls and the economic ramifications,

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Speaker 1: but it's now going to add a second part to

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Speaker 1: that inquiry. It's going to look at all the juicy stuff,

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Speaker 1: the extended lockdowns in Auckland and Northland, the vaccine effe efficacy,

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Speaker 1: vaccine safety, the extent of disruption to our health, education

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Speaker 1: and businesses and so on. Brook van Velden is the

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Speaker 1: Internal Affairs Minister who ordered this and is with us now.

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Speaker 1: Hey Brook, Hey, how are you well? Thank you? Of

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Speaker 1: the controversial stuff that happened. Is there anything you're not

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Speaker 1: looking into.

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Speaker 2: Now? What we've done is we've gone out for public

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Speaker 2: submissions and we've had really fulsome submissions come back out

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Speaker 2: of thirteen thousand people. We've looked in detail at what

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Speaker 2: people would like us to look into, plus added both

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Speaker 2: with New Zealand First Coalition commitments as well, and I

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Speaker 2: think we've got a really good pass board. There's still

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Speaker 2: a lot of concern I know out during the public

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Speaker 2: of if we have another pandemic, how will the new

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Speaker 2: Zealand government re ac and there's a lot of lessons

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Speaker 2: to be learned and I think this helps us answer

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Speaker 2: those questions and is a really good pass forward that

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Speaker 2: this government is creating.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so you're looking at mandates inflation, confiscating rat kits,

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Speaker 1: spending of COVID fund on art funding, closing schools, closing businesses,

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Speaker 1: mi IQ, restricting access to dying relatives, all of that.

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Speaker 2: Well, the technicalities of everything that you've been talking about

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Speaker 2: will come out in full detail in a few more months,

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Speaker 2: but the broad scope of this is that we're looking

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Speaker 2: into how the government balanced all of the other goals

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Speaker 2: of government versus COVID, you know, things like breastcatterter screening

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Speaker 2: and why that was put on PUDs, Why it was

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Speaker 2: that kids weren't able to access school and the effect

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Speaker 2: that they will have on their social well being over time,

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Speaker 2: and why on Earth it was so hard for businesses

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Speaker 2: just to be open and do their business, and why

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Speaker 2: the government was stopping that. Those things come through really

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Speaker 2: loud and clear, as well as concern about whether or

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Speaker 2: not those mandates were right. I think from my own perspective,

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Speaker 2: I don't think they were. However, we've got to look

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Speaker 2: at how we would do better in the future, and

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Speaker 2: that's what we'll be going into great detail on would.

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Speaker 1: You be expecting Jacinda Ardurn and Ashley Bloomfield to actually

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Speaker 1: be giving evidence?

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Speaker 2: Well, part of this requirement for terms of reference going forward,

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Speaker 2: is it part of the evidence will be held in public.

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Speaker 2: It's not for me at this point to say exactly

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Speaker 2: who would be in those hearings in public, because that's

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Speaker 2: up to the commissioners and we do have.

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Speaker 1: To But this is a possibility, right, It's a possibility

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Speaker 1: that Jacinda or Ashley are sitting there in public answering

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Speaker 1: questions about this.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, look, it's a possibility that it could be a

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Speaker 2: range of different people. Like I say, I can't give

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Speaker 2: a guarantee on what that will look like because that's

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Speaker 2: up to the Commissioners at the end of the day.

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Speaker 2: As part of their independence.

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Speaker 1: Listeners agree to disagree. Clause that's been invoked by New

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Speaker 1: Zealand first doesn't strike me as a particularly a big deal,

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Speaker 1: is it.

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Speaker 2: No, not at all. But I think what's really at

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Speaker 2: play here is that as a coalition we've found a

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Speaker 2: really good path forward that meets both coalition agreements and

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Speaker 2: everybody is on board. All we have here is one

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Speaker 2: issue about something in the past, which was Labour's royal

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Speaker 2: permission in terms of reference and the commissioners. I don't

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Speaker 2: think there's a lot to see there. What we have

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Speaker 2: as a government working really well and also acknowledging that

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Speaker 2: there might be a point of difference on that one

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Speaker 2: little issue.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff, brook thank you very much, Brooklyn Valved and

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Speaker 1: the Internal Affairs Minister. Listen. I'm just watching the cricket

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Speaker 1: at the moment, with all the whooping and hollering and

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Speaker 1: crying and the hugging and stuff that's going on. It

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Speaker 1: would appear that Afghanistan has beaten Bangladesh in the T

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Speaker 1: twenty World Cup and advance through and they are, let

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Speaker 1: me tell you, fizzing. For more from Heather Duplessy Alan Drive,

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Speaker 1: listen live to News Talk sai'd Be from four pm weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.