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Speaker 1: Afternoon. The COVID Inquiry has canceled any further public hearings

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Speaker 1: because Jacinda Ardurn, Chris Hopkins, Grant Robertson and Aischeveril are

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Speaker 1: refusing to front for it. The former ministers argue that

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Speaker 1: it would be performative rather than informative hearing from them.

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Speaker 1: National Party MP Chris Bishop is with me at the moment,

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Speaker 1: High Chris good afternoon. Far from ideal, isn't it?

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Speaker 2: Oh? I think it's disgraceful. New Zealanders deserve answers to

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Speaker 2: the scale of the COVID spending that we are still

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Speaker 2: bearing the consequences of today, and they should front up

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Speaker 2: and explain to the public and to the COVID Inquiry

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Speaker 2: exactly why they did this, the scale of the spending

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Speaker 2: that they did, and how they did it.

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Speaker 1: Do you think the quary's done, the Inquiry's done the

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Speaker 1: wrong thing. Deciding not to summons them.

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Speaker 2: Well, that would be an extraordinary step. I think really

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Speaker 2: what Chris Hopkins should do is decide to do the

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Speaker 2: right thing and actually front up, because he was in

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Speaker 2: charge of, alongside j Cinder Ardourn, an economic response to

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Speaker 2: COVID that has left us with enormous amounts of debt.

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Speaker 2: Core Crown debt increased by one hundred and sixty nine

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Speaker 2: percent from twenty nineteen to twenty twenty three, one hundred

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Speaker 2: and fifty five billion dollars. That is money that my

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Speaker 2: kids and your kids are going to have to repay.

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Speaker 2: We have very little to show for it. By the way,

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Speaker 2: I can tell you that the country's not one hundred

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Speaker 2: for one hundred and sixteen nine percent better off as

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Speaker 2: a result of that record spending. And as the Treasury

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Speaker 2: report that came out last week revealed, half of the

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Speaker 2: response to COVID that the extra spending was completely unrelated

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Speaker 2: to COVID. So we seen ended up spending things like

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Speaker 2: you know, jobs for nature programs so called shove already

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Speaker 2: programs increased, to welfare benefits, training schemes, tax changes. You know,

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Speaker 2: none of these things are actually related to COVID, but

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Speaker 2: we're all of course bearing the price of that through

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Speaker 2: high inflation and high debt that we're still enduring today.

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Speaker 1: Listen, I don't know if you know the details of

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Speaker 1: what's gone on here, but my understanding is that what

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Speaker 1: these guys have done is like a depositions. They've done

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Speaker 1: a pre interview with the view and the reason it

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Speaker 1: was done was a pre interview so that they could

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Speaker 1: do the main interview. But once they did the pre interview,

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Speaker 1: they basically said that you've got everything you need and

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Speaker 1: pulled out. Is that what happened.

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Speaker 2: That's my understanding about what happened. The inquiry invited them

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Speaker 2: to appear in public and overseas. That's you know, some

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Speaker 2: of these hearings have been in public, like the UK

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Speaker 2: COVID inquiry has all been in public. For example, for

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Speaker 2: the Stage one of our inquiry was all done behind

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Speaker 2: closed doors. The Stage two, which is focused on the

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Speaker 2: economic response, has was designed to be done in public,

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Speaker 2: and they've basically just thumb their no's at it and

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Speaker 2: said no, we're not going to I mean, I think

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Speaker 2: the irony that a lot of New Zealanders will understand

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Speaker 2: is great, which is, you know, more than prepared to

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Speaker 2: speak up from the podium of truth day after day

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Speaker 2: during those awful COVID years, prepared to do all of that,

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Speaker 2: take questions during that period, but not prepared to front

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Speaker 2: up a few years later and actually answer some tough

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Speaker 2: questions about the economic response. I think it says at.

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Speaker 1: All listen at the risk of sounding petulant, and I

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Speaker 1: am aware that I could we do that. There are

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Speaker 1: perks associated with some of these officers that continue. For example,

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Speaker 1: we continue to pay a stipend to just Sindada and

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Speaker 1: because she was once a former prime minister. I mean,

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Speaker 1: should we think about would it be would it be

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Speaker 1: would it be cheerlish of us to take it away

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Speaker 1: from her?

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Speaker 2: I think, I mean, look, I can understand people's anger

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Speaker 2: about that. I think you get into dangerous terry when

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Speaker 2: you do that. So I wouldn't recommend that, but I

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Speaker 2: do think they should be doing the right thing here

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Speaker 2: and I think New Zealanders will judge them for not

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Speaker 2: fronting up, and in particular, I think they will judge

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Speaker 2: Chris Hipkins, who, let's remember, is still in politics. So Zeishaverel,

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Speaker 2: Justinda Ideirne has left, but Chris Hoipkins is wanting to

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Speaker 2: be the Prime Minister of this country again, and I

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Speaker 2: think it's disgraceful that he won't front up and explain

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Speaker 2: to the public why they went on a spending spree

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Speaker 2: that sent New Zealand crashing into recession that we are

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Speaker 2: still bearing the consequences of today.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Chris appreciated Chris Buship, National Party MP.

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